Elliptic, the blockchain analysis firm, claims to have uncovered millions of wallet addresses being used by Russians to bypass tough US sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The firm claimed to have tracked down a Russian-owned crypto wallet with significant asset holdings.
Details of the Report
Discussing the findings, Tom Robinson, the co-founder of Elliptic, told Bloomberg that one of the wallets they uncovered holds millions of dollars. According to Robinson, the funds belong to sanctioned Russians. He did not reveal the exact amount held in the wallet. However, Elliptic has already identified over 400 platforms that facilitate trade in rubles. In total, it said there were at least 15 million crypto addresses linked to Russian criminal activity.
Robinson noted the crypto could and would be used for crypto evasion. However, he noted that it was not realistic to use crypto to bypass transactions. The reason for this was that crypto was highly traceable.
Coinbase, a leading crypto exchange, recently announced that it had blocked over 25,000 crypto addresses linked to Russians, whom it believes were engaging in illegal activity. The CEO of the Binance exchange also commented on the issue. He said that it would be unethical to expand the restrictions list beyond those sanctioned individuals.
Sanctions Screening Tools from Chainalysis
OM March 10, 2022, Chainalysis, announced that it had released sanctioning screening tools. According to the company, these tools would be used to identify crypto wallet addresses associated with countries that were being sanctioned. In the blog post, the company stated that it was concerned about the potential use of crypto by sanctioned entities in Russia to evade sanctions.
However, the blog post noted that given the public nature of blockchain transactions, it would be difficult for Russian entities to evade sanctions by using crypto. However, that would not stop a few Russian entities and individuals from using crypto to evade the sanctions.
Ukraine Legalizes Crypto
While there appears to be a concerted effort to keep Russia off crypto, there are no such risks to Ukraine. The country recently legalized the use of crypto. This is after various organizations in the country received millions of dollars in crypto donations.
According to the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, crypto is now legal in Ukraine. All banks in the country have been authorized to open bank accounts for crypto companies. Both foreign and local companies will benefit from this new law.
What it means for the Future
In most nations, including the US, there is no national law on crypto regulation. One reason for this is the evolving nature of the crypto sector. As a result, most nations have adopted a wait-and-see approach. In most nations, regulating crypto is left to financial regulators, who come up with rules as the need arises. With the increased worries about the use of crypto to evade sanctions, there is a possibility that some nations could adopt harsher rules when it comes to the crypto sector.
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