Bitcoin sanctions could be next, but most Russians won’t care

Bitcoin sanctions could be next, but most Russians won’t care

As Moscow's war on Ukraine rages on and the Russian economy — and currency — , Washington is to dial up the pressure on Putin: cryptocurrencies like and . The Department of Justice announced early Wednesday a broadly designed to enforce sanctions. As part of that, it will target efforts to use cryptocurrency to evade U.S. sanctions, launder proceeds of foreign corruption, or evade U.S. responses to Russian military aggression. comes as the U.S. and its allies, including notoriously neutral Switzerland, against Moscow. The concern is that the Kremlin, as well as other ancillary actors supporting the offensive on Ukraine, will evade the sanctions regime via digital tokens, which are not owned or issued by a central authority like a bank. Bitcoin, like most cryptocurrencies, is decentralized and borderless, meaning that it doesn't respect national boundaries. Because there is no central authority to block transactions, digital currencies are also resistant. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, show that transactions on centralized bitcoin exchanges in both the Russian ruble and the Ukrainian hryvnia have surged to their highest levels in months. This is likely part of the reason why Ukraine asked all the top crypto exchanges to ban Russian users