March 29, 2024

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Bitcoin Drops, Crypto Platforms Refuse Pressure to Exclude Russians

Bitcoin Drops, Crypto Platforms Refuse Pressure to Exclude Russians

Financial Gazette – Santiago

The Bitcoin On track to recover losses for a second day as the war in Ukraine intensifies and major cryptocurrency platforms face growing calls to comply with sanctions against Russia, which means more interventions in virtual assets.

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap fell as much as 4% to $40,423 in New York, putting it on track to end the week lower after rising 17% from Monday to Wednesday.

For its part, ether is down as much as 5%, while both polkadot and litecoin are down 5% in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

refused to interfere

Meanwhile, two major crypto exchanges, Coinbase and Binance, on Friday rejected calls for a blanket ban on all Russian users to prevent their platforms from being used as a way to circumvent Western sanctions, insisting they are well-equipped to avoid abuse.

“We will not unilaterally freeze the accounts of millions of innocent users,” a spokesperson for Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency platform, said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

“We believe that everyone deserves access to essential financial services, unless otherwise required by law,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a series of tweets on Friday.

By staying in Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine, both platforms are taking a different stance from the major financial institutions, while anti-money laundering experts and European regulators argue that such stances undermine Western attempts to isolate Moscow.

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