Russia Can No Longer Receive Cross-Border Crypto Payments from the EU
In February, against the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical tensions, Russia launched a full-fledged invasion attempt on Ukraine at the president's orders.
The February-starting confrontation between Russia and Ukraine still does not appear to be near to a resolution. The European Union (EU) has outlawed all cross-border cryptocurrency transactions aimed at Russia in the wake of the current tensions between the two countries. In the midst of ongoing geopolitical tensions, Russia attacked Ukraine militarily on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. Several countries around the world have imposed sanctions, preventing Russia from accessing funds from overseas accounts that could have added more fuel to the fire. These sanctions criticise Russia's violent response to the issues.
The European Commission issued a statement on Thursday after EU states approved its proposals from last week, saying that 'the existing prohibitions on crypto assets have been reinforced by outlawing all crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services, regardless of the volume of the wallet.'
The actions come after Russia's attempt to annex the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. One of the measures is a cap on the price of oil that Russia can sell.
The crypto crackdown, which went into force later on Thursday after being published in the EU's official journal, prohibits European crypto providers from providing services to Russian citizens and businesses unless they are also citizens of the EU.
According to information obtained by CoinDesk, it appears to be driven by concerns that the current 10,000 euro cap was insufficient to stop payments from Russia.
After restrictions were put in place in April, 'we found that transactions were still going on on some scale,' an EU official said. We needed to make sure that EU operators were no longer providing these services.
However, the person, who was not authorised to comment on the record, noted that the plans might be inspired by similar policies from other European countries.
