Ukraine’s administration has continued to request that Russia be subjected to harsher sanctions. Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, has urged cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze addresses linked to Russia and Belarus.
Ukraine is concerned that cryptocurrency may reverse Russia’s sanctions.
In a tweet, Federov stated that it had become necessary to undermine not only officials in both countries but also their population.
I’m asking all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users. It’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users, Federov said.
The international community has been working to put pressure on Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine. Several steps have been taken by the United States and European Union (EU) countries to impair Russia’s economy.
The assets of Russia’s central banks have been frozen, and Russian domestic institutions have been barred from using the international financial messaging system SWIFT.
However, there have been concerns that Russia’s government, banks, and billionaires may use cryptocurrency to easily circumvent sanctions. This is especially true given that blockchain technology is designed to be permissionless and impartial in such scenarios.
According to market analysts, Russia could easily develop instruments to allow it to trade using cryptocurrency. If other countries agree to trade with it, the CBDC Russia is planning to launch could aid in sanction evasion.
At this time, no major cryptocurrency exchange has stated that it intends to penalize Russia or Belarus. The sole crypto exchange to respond to Federov’s call for action was DMarkets, a Ukrainian NFT marketplace. The NFT marketplace announced that members from both countries’ accounts will be frozen, with the asset potentially being donated to the war effort.
The current fight is still swaying Bitcoin and altcoins.
Since the ear, the crypto market has experienced a huge decline in value. In the last week, Bitcoin has lost 2.11 percent of its value. It’s currently trading at $38,400, down 1.43 percent on the day.
Other cryptocurrencies have also witnessed large declines in value, with the crypto market valuation plummeting by more than $200 billion. The market capitalization is at $1.8 trillion, down 1.1 percent from the previous day.
However, cryptocurrency has been essential in supporting Ukraine. Crypto donations to help Ukraine’s troops and citizens have topped $18 million.
Key cryptocurrency industry participants have also shown their support for Ukraine. Despite being a Russian, Vitalik Buterin has indicated that he supports Ukraine. TRON’s founder, Justin Sun, has also given donations to the country.
Elon Musk, a long-time backer of Dogecoin, has aided Ukraine with Starlink satellites to maintain internet availability.