Ukraine’s Financial Watchdog Reports Blocking Russian Crypto Exchanges
The State Financial Monitoring Service (SFMS), a financial intelligence agency of Ukraine, has released a report on the results of its operations in 2022. In addition to its peacetime activities to combat money laundering, the agency discloses that it has made a significant contribution to the country’s defense and efforts as part of its ongoing conflict with Russia.
In the document they published this week, it appears, Watchdog announced that its staff have joined forces with colleagues from the Ministry of Digital Transformation and prominent Ukraine crypto experts. Also were able to identify Russian crypto exchanges linked to financial institutions placed under sanctions, including Russia’s largest bank, Sber.
Ukraine’s financial regulator could not pinpoint the platforms or their domains, but insisted that the aim was to block them entirely. Also, the State Financial Monitoring Service, working together with crypto service providers in Ukraine and abroad, introduced a mechanism blocking crypto wallets of the Russian Federation. It is unclear whether this refers to the Russian wallet in general or is linked to the government in Moscow. The state service reminds that last year it also turned to the world’s largest crypto exchange or even took steps towards it in order to prevent aggression of the Russian Federation in the virtual assets market and to protect users of individual Russian banks. suggested actions to block peer-to-peer transactions including payment systems. Other practical measures related to the blocking of Russian crypto assets and operations of Russian residents have also been implemented, and according to the agency it is cooperating with the financial authorities of about 140 countries in the matter, breaking all their ties with regulators in Russia and Belarus. Used to be.
“SFMS also notes that it is involved in cooperation between Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, and countries with a growing crypto market and mining sector, with a focus on reducing money laundering through digital assets. focuses”. This project is also being realized with the help of the United Nations and the OSCE. The talk coincides with a statement by Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, promising that the country will become the world’s largest crypto jurisdiction once it finalizes its regulatory framework for the industry. Ukraine has certainly established itself as a leader in cryptocurrency adoption in Eastern Europe over the past few years and has been accepting crypto donations since the beginning in the wake of the Russian invasion. Its parliament passed a law on virtual assets last February and related amendments to the tax code are being prepared.
