Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has blocked 25,000 blockchain addresses linked to Russian people or entities.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month governments around the world have imposed a range of sanctions on individuals and territories, and Coinbase fully supports these efforts by government authorities, which play a vital role in promoting national security and deterring unlawful aggression, wrote the chief legal officer Paul Grewal in the official blog on Tuesday.
“No compliance program is perfect, including ours. But to play our part in these critical economic sanctions, Coinbase implements a multi-layered, global sanctions program,” reads the blogpost.
Coinbase have blocked 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals or entities it believes to be engaging in illicit activity. At the same time, the company notes that this figure isn’t specific to the time period since the invasion of Ukraine, as most of these addresses were identified prior to the invasion.
For example, in 2020, the United States sanctioned a Russian national and provided three associated blockchain addresses. Using advanced blockchain analysis tools Coinbase identified over 1,200 additional wallets potentially associated with this individual and added them to its internal blocklist.
Crypto wallets are anonymous and don’t require dealing with traditional banks, but nevertheless, transactions are “traceable, permanent, and public”, points out Grewal. That’s why exchanges have the ability to block illicit accounts, preventing its holders from buying or selling digital money.
Nowadays Russia is isolated from the most banking systems. For instance, last week Visa and Mastercard suspended their operations in the country, so cardholders now dependent only on Russia’s National Payment Card System.
Cybersecurity Help’s statement on the critical situation in Ukraine
On February 24, people in many cities and towns across Ukraine woke up to the sounds of explosions and artillery fire, as the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of the country. Such actions are unacceptable, political ambitions of any man aren’t worth of blood, tears, and destruction of millions of lives. We give our full support to the Ukrainian people in these hard times. No more war!