The United States has sanctioned 13 Russia-linked fintech companies for allegedly using virtual currencies to circumvent the ban.
“Russia is increasingly turning to alternative payment mechanisms to circumvent U.S. sanctions and continue to fund its war against Ukraine.” brian nelson, The US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said on Monday (March 25). announcement.
“As the Kremlin seeks to leverage companies in the financial technology sector, the Treasury Department will continue to expose and disrupt companies that seek to help sanctioned Russian financial institutions reconnect to the global financial system.” added Nelson.
Sanctions — administered by the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) — Targeted a set of 13 Moscow-based FinTech companies, including Atomaiz, B-Crypto, Masterchain, Veb3 Tekhnologii, Veb3 Integrator, and Tokenhurt, a Cyprus-based company that is also the majority shareholder of Atomaiz. I am.
“As a result of today's action, all property and interests of the named individuals located in the United States or owned or controlled by U.S. persons will be blocked and must be reported to OFAC,” the announcement said. . “Additionally, all entities that are 50% or more owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.”
America sanctions imposed About Russia in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to PYMNTS shortly thereafter, Chainalysis Andrew Fierman He said these sanctions do not necessarily mean that companies need to avoid dealing with cryptocurrencies.
“What a lot of people don't really understand is that cryptocurrencies are actually incredibly transparent” said Fiermann, director of sanctions strategy at a blockchain data platform and a veteran of companies such as Barclays and JPMorgan Chase.
He pointed out that cryptocurrencies operate on a public, immutable blockchain ledger. That is, once a transaction is recorded, it cannot be changed or deleted.
“This means anyone can examine the entire transaction history at any time using a public block explorer,” Fiermann added.
Meanwhile, a drop in crypto activity in 2023 will lead to a corresponding decline in crypto money laundering, with $22.2 billion worth of crypto transferred to services from fraudulent addresses, according to a report from Chainalysis last month. This was a significant decrease from the previous year's $31.5 billion in remittances. .
“Part of this decline is due to overall decrease “Both legal and illegal cryptocurrency transaction volumes are increasing,” the report states. “However, the decline in money laundering activity was more rapid at 29.5% compared to the 14.9% decline in total transaction volume.”
