Crypto Exchange Okx Blocked by Russia’s Telecom Watchdog – Exchanges Bitcoin News

Roskomnadzor is Russia’s communications regulator and media. They have restricted Okx’s access to its website. The trading platform was one of those that did not restrict access for Russians amid sanctions that affected the industry’s business in Russia.

Okx Blacklisted on Request From Russian Prosecutor’s Office for Disseminating Banned Information

Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, also known as Roskomnadzor, has added this week the domain name of crypto exchange Okx to its list of sites containing information, the distribution of which is prohibited in the Russian Federation. The move follows a decision by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.

The Seychelles-based company is among the few leading coin trading platforms that did not introduce restrictions for Russian users despite mounting Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, the Russian business news portal RBC noted in a report.

Russian prosecutors asked the telecom watchdog to prevent access to its website for “dissemination of unreliable socially significant information of financial nature,” Roskomnadzor told RBC Crypto. The agency’s press service further elaborated:

This site contains information about financial pyramid activities and information on financial services provided by people who don’t have the legal right.

Okx has an average daily trading volume around $1.5 million and has listed 350 digital assets. Okx has yet to comment. Russian lawyers noted however that Russia can block any cryptocurrency exchange if it does not have a complete legal framework. According to Daniil Gorkov, a lawyer at the Criminal Defense Firm, this would deal an irreparable blow to the country’s crypto market.

Roskomnadzor has a long history of taking down cryptocurrency-related websites. In September 2020, the world’s largest crypto trading platform, Binance, was blocked for some time. On several occasions, Bestchange.ru was blacklisted and other crypto news outlets were also targeted. The restrictions in each case were lifted later after the prosecutors failed to convince the courts.

Is it possible that Russian authorities could restrict your access to major cryptocurrency exchanges? Comment below.

Lubomir Tatsev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.