Russians and some Russian banks subject to sanctions can simply trade in digital currencies via the Huobi and KuCoin crypto exchanges. This is what data analyst Inca Digital, specialized in crypto coins, says in a report. According to director Adam Zarazinski, the exchanges may be violating US and European sanctions.
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Many of the transactions of Russians concern the digital currency Tether, a so-called stablecoin. That is a digital currency that is linked to a real currency and therefore has a fixed value. “Tether is widely used by Russians to get money out of the country,” says Zarazinski. “It is definitely being used by these two crypto exchanges to provide services to sanctioned Russian banks.”
But Inca says other exchanges also offer Russians many opportunities to trade, including major crypto exchange Binance. It offers Russians “multiple ways to convert rubles into crypto coins”. For amounts below $ 10,000, Binance does not check where the money comes from and whether the customer has obtained it fairly.
Binance
In a response, Binance is the first crypto exchange to comply with the anti-money laundering rules of the European Union. A spokesperson said Binance, which has no central headquarters, is doing more than is required of the company to ensure it is not used by Russians to evade sanctions.
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