Russian Government Sanctions Aren’t Hindering the Country’s Crypto Exchanges’ Interest and Growth

Just last month the US Treasury announced a new set of sanctions on Wednesday against Russian individuals and entities over what it called Russia's “continued disregard for international norms.” The sanctions were announced against entities tied to “Project Lakhta,” which Treasury said was part of an effort tied to the infamous Internet Research Agency and a slew of current and former members of the GRU, the Russian intelligence service, for trying to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

This was just the latest of a series of economic sanctions that have been added by the western world to Russia. However, many businesses look at this situation as an opportunity to get ahead in the game. Despite the sanctions and regulatory hindrance, many crypto exchanges are looking at the country as a major business ally.

For example, Belarusians are being prohibited from using the exchange simply because of their country's ties with Russia— even though Russia itself is exempt from this ban despite being at the receiving end of a number of US-based trade restrictions at the moment. Binance’s T&C’s prohibit individuals and countries on the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC) sanction lists to make use of the platform— however even though Russia is part of the list, it has been conspicuously exempted from this latest ban.

Huobi is another big which has investments in Russia. In November 2018 Huobi established their operation in the country. Huobi is looking to not only penetrate the Russian market and establish a presence in its economy, but it’s also looking to help local startups grow as well as encourage mining through the establishment of mining hotels in the country. Hotel mining has become quite popular in Russia with miners renting out facilities and setting up their mining pools there. This is in a bid to overcome the limitations of mining in residential homes and corporate offices.

The country is friendly to a couple crypto exchanges whose services are trusted by the public so far. One can easily purchase Bitcoins or altcoins from Bitstamp, Bitfinex & Exmo while in Russia provided they meet the KYC requirements and fulfill transaction obligations. In addition, crypto enthusiasts can access less popular coin platforms like Livecoin and Hitbtc.