The European Union tightens crypto sanctions on Russians

According to the EU’s 8th sanctions package, Russians will not be allowed to own and hold crypto in EU member states. Previously, there was a limit of 10000€ on crypto ownership, now, all of it is banned.

Previous cryptocurrency restrictions were toughened as well: now, restrictions apply to all accounts, crypto-wallets, crypto storage services and the amount of money in the crypto-wallet is of no importance.

We have known about the preparation of the 8th sanctions package by the EU for a week. However, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, noted that they would not be implementing any new restrictions, the exchange will continue servicing users from Russia as normal. Binance is yet to comment on the EU’s 8th sanctions package.

According to Nikita Zuborev, a senior analyst at the Bestchange exchange, Russians with accounts in foreign financial services that have AML checks and want to continue operating in the EU market are at risk. A variety of different services could restrict access to Russians.

He noted that exchanges which have already implemented restrictions for Russians would be the first to ban them outright. There is a possibility that Binance will be one of them. Zuborev stated that restrictions from Peer-to-Peer exchanges, particularly ones affiliated with crypto exchanges, are also possible. Those exchanges may ban all work with Russian banks.

Effective Business Resources’ managing partner Alexander Zhuravlev stated that EU’s new sanctions could impact all Russians. He noted that Russians would not be able to create new accounts on crypto exchanges, while their old accounts will be unusable.

One of Russia’s leading financial analysts noted that restrictions might not be limited to exchanges’ European divisions and that the companies’ other branches could refuse to service Russian users. He also stated that it is too early to draw conclusions, it is necessary to wait for official statements by main crypto exchanges on their plans regarding Russian traders and crypto-enthusiasts.