March 3, 2022

The European Commission is investigating whether cryptocurrencies are being used to circumvent sanctions against Russian financial institutions.

According to the senior EU official who confirmed the move, the EU is aware that crypto assets were a “possible circumvention route” to circumvent sanctions imposed by the blocs and other Western powers.

Further suspicions were raised after trading volumes between the Russian Ruble and tether cryptocurrencies surged on Monday.

“The increase in value of some of these assets may be a response to attempts to circumvent the sanctions. We are looking into this, but no decision has been taken yet,” the EU official said.

However, crypto-exchanges are taking steps to help sanction Russia especially customers from their platforms. Binance has blocked the accounts of Russian customers affected by the ban.

The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo had advocated blocking the digital wallet addresses of Russian and Belarusian politicians and ordinary users at large cryptocurrency exchanges.

For more information, read the original story in Reuters.