Hillary Clinton, former presidential candidate, has criticised the Biden administration as well as European governments for failing to press cryptocurrency exchanges into ending transactions with Russian users. She believes regulators “should look hard at how they can prevent the crypto markets from giving an escape hatch to Russia, both governmental and private transactions in and out of Russia.”
Hillary Clinton ‘Disappointed’ Crypto Exchanges Are Not Blocking All Russian Users
Hillary Clinton was a former first lady and U.S. senator.
Clinton spoke out about the failure of some cryptocurrency exchanges in blocking accounts from all Russian users.
I was disappointed to see that some of the so-called crypto exchanges, not all of them but some of them, are refusing to end transactions with Russia for some, I don’t know, philosophy of libertarianism or whatever.
She continued: “If there has to be legal or regulatory pressure, everybody should do as much as possible to isolate Russian economic activity right now.”
Mykhailo Fedorov (Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine) tweeted Sunday asking for all the major cryptocurrency exchanges in order to ban all addresses from Russian users. “It’s crucial to freeze not only addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians but also to sabotage ordinary users,” he tweeted.
However, many major cryptocurrency exchanges said they would not do so, and refused to suspend accounts for Russian users. Binance, Coinbase and Kraken are some of them. These exchanges are expected to comply with the sanctions.
Jesse Powell (CEO of Kraken crypto-exchange Kraken) explained that his exchange cannot freeze accounts from Russian users unless there’s a legal requirement by a government. He cited what happened in Canada as part of the Freedom Convoy trucker protest.
Powell suggested that those who are concerned about their accounts being frozen move their coins out of exchanges to self-custody.
Clinton feels that countries should be more diligent in trying to prevent crypto being used as a means of evading sanctions. Former first lady and secretary to state, Clinton said:
Concerning the specific case in Ukraine, I think that Treasury Department should be involved. [and]The Europeans need to think about how they can stop the crypto market from opening up a doorway for Russia. This includes both private and government transactions.
“I would hope somebody at the Treasury Department is trying to figure out how to rein in the leaky valves in the crypto market that might allow Russia to escape the full weight of the sanctions,” she noted.
Clinton in November called for the Biden administration’s regulation of cryptocurrency. She warned that manipulation by Russia or China was possible. She also warned that cryptocurrency could destabilize nations and undermine the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
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