The EU called cryptoassets “transferable securities,” extending the scope of economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
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The European Union has clarified that the sanctions imposed on Russia include digital currencies.
In a communiqué on Wednesday, the European Commission indicated that it is extending the scope of sanctions against Russia and Belarus in the face of the armed invasion in Ukraine. The order from the European bloc’s top lawmaking body explicitly mentions cryptocurrencies, calling them “ marketable securities “.
The EU clarified that, falling within the scope of transferable securities, the asset class clearly falls within the scope of the sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus in response to their involvement in the conflict.
“ To Belarus The measures introduce prohibitions on SWIFT similar to those of the Russian regime, it is clarified that crypto-assets fall within the scope of “transferable securities” and further extend existing financial restrictions by reflecting the measures already in place with respect to Russian sanctions “, the Commission wrote in the order.
Sanctions extend to cryptocurrencies
The European bloc also announced the expansion of existing financial restrictions in Belarus to mirror those already in place in Russia. These include restrictions on the provision of SWIFT interbank services to three Belarusian banks and their subsidiaries, a ban on negotiations and transactions with the Central Bank of Belarus and a ban on listing the addition of an asset or an asset pair to an exchange. shares of Belarusian state-owned entities on EU markets.
La declaración también confirmó el entendimiento común de que los préstamos y los créditos a Rusia se pueden proporcionar por cualquier medio, incluidas las criptomonedas. La Comisión Europea destacó al respecto que aclarar la classification to include digital digital technologies are these electronic tools that have the ability to generate, store or even process data. currencies was a step towards ” ensure proper enforcement of existing restrictions “.
These amendments create a closer alignment of EU sanctions vis-à-vis Russia and Belarus and will help to ensure even more effectively that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented, including via Belarus.
EU lawmakers and officials had already expressed concerns that cryptocurrencies could be used as an alternative channel to move money in and out of Russia, allowing it to circumvent sanctions. In the face of this possibility, members had been discussing extending sanctions to the crypto space.
Cabe señalar, como hizo The Block a file containing information on transactions completed during a given time period. Blocks are the constituent parts of a blockchain.that the classification used of “ marketable securities ” is not in the draft EU regulation on cryptocurrencies. These regulations, known as MiCAs, are expected to be subject to a key vote next week , después de que se pospusieran hace unos días.
Russia still not using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions
Many of the big players in the cryptocurrency cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use cryptographic technologies to secure their operation. space have pledged to abide by sanctions from Europe and Western allies, though they have resisted complying with massive blockades for Russian users. Leaders of renowned exchanges, such as. Binance y Coinbase is an American company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. have defended financial freedom as an intrinsic value of cryptocurrencies.
Other companies in the payments area, from Visa y Mastercard to Revolut y PayPal have taken steps to block people in Russia across the board.
Meanwhile, other experts in the crypto space have pointed out that the Russia’s ability to use digital assets as Bitcoin the biggest and most popular cryptocurrency in the world. It is a decentralized digital currency that enables users to make trustless peer-to-peer transactions. to evade penalties is debatable . Salman Banei, head of public policy at blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis , he told CoinDesk TV que era “ improbable “that this would happen. The head of policy at the Blockchain a distributed ledger system. A sequence of blocks, or units of digital information, stored consecutively in a public database. The basis for cryptocurrencies. Association for the U.S., Jake Chervinsky also shared a similar opinion .
This Wednesday, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network a network refers to all nodes in the operation of a blockchain at any given moment in time. (FinCEN) a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, issued a warning about Russia’s attempts to evade the sanctions which includes a number of red flags related to digital assets. However, the agency admitted that it has not seen a “ widespread evasion “of their sanctions using cryptocurrencies.
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Article by Hannah Estefania Perez / DiarioBitcoin
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