According to Yulia Privalova, head of the FinTech & Crypto Practice at the law firm DRC, this is linked to investigations by U.S. regulators regarding helping Russians bypass sanctions.<\/p>\n
Privalova noted that despite the restrictions, merchants in the course of transactions substitute the names of sanctioned banks with ‘Yellow’, ‘Green’, ‘Yellow Oleg’ and others. Previously, alternative names were available directly in the drop-down list of payment methods, but Binance later removed them.<\/p>\n The lawyer added that, at present, Russian users can still use alternative crypto platforms. However, in the future she did not rule out that a similar ban could spread to them.<\/p>\n \u201cUndoubtedly, in the long run, there will be restrictions on Russian users across all exchanges, which will complicate the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies, drive the use of decentralized platforms and push toward more ‘grey’ methods of withdrawing funds through third parties. This, in turn, could trigger a new wave of fraud and losses for the population,\u201d Privalova warned.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n She recommended that users increase financial literacy and store funds in cold wallets, rather than on exchanges.<\/p>\n Sergey Mendeleev, CEO of Indefibank, argues that the simultaneous removal of sanctioned banks from three exchanges resembles collusion among those specific companies:<\/p>\n \u201cWhy did this happen only on these exchanges, while on Gate.io or Huobi everything remains as before?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Moreover, the more serious problem, according to the expert, is Binance’s fiat restrictions for residents of the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf sanctions on certain banks create only minor difficulties (which the community quickly resolved by arranging deals with Sber via Russian Standard), then with the first one you have to figure out how to counter it, as it disrupts a large number of linkages\u2014 primarily in international dealings, on which many earned quite well,\u201d explained Mendeleev.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Overall, he believes that in this situation the market will sort it out and Russian users will move from Binance to \u201cmore sensible and loyal exchanges.\u201d<\/p>\n The expert stressed that there were no grounds for imposing such strict restrictions.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the side of the Russian leadership, it would be nice to see some countermeasures, for example blocking the mentioned resources or even tougher \u2014 declaring their activity on the territory of the Russian Federation undesirable with all the consequences that follow. But I fear that the people who make such decisions are not even aware of the situation, unfortunately,\u201d concluded Mendeleev.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Imposing restrictions on Russians is linked to crypto exchanges\u2019 obligation to comply with the laws of the countries where they are registered, including sanctions policy, adds Andrey Tugarin, managing partner at GMT Legal.<\/p>\n According to him, crypto operations are no longer a way to circumvent restrictions.<\/p>\n \u201cPotential tightening of service could occur if sanctions pressure intensifies. We see that crypto operations do not shield from sanctions, so all restrictions in the traditional world will be mirrored onto the crypto sphere\u2014 on exchanges and other VASP,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As reported in May, media reported that the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division was investigating the parent company \u2014 Binance Holdings Ltd.\u2014 for possible sanctions violations related to Russia.<\/p>\n![\"2023-08-28-14.56.50\"](\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023-08-28-14.56.50-687x1024.jpg\")
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