Large cryptocurrency exchanges failed to block Russia from accessing the market as they still offer services that allow Russia-based individuals to exchange crypto to fiat.
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According to a report from the blockchain analytics firm Inca Digital provided to POLITICO, such crypto exchanges as Huobi, KuCoin, Binance as Bybit still have Russian banks in their listing for peer-to-peer platforms.
Although the exchanges do not directly accept payments from the sanctioned financial institutions, they still have loopholes, representing a "direct violation of US and European sanctions," said Inca CEO Adam Zarazinski. Bybit appears to be the only exchange, which allows Russians not only trade on its peer-to-peer platform, but also to purchase crypto from "any Russian-issued card," the report notes.
In late April 2022, Binance said it had blocked several trading accounts tied to relatives of Kremlin top officials. According to Bloomberg, the exchange banned Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Elizaveta Peskova, the daughter of President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Binance also suspended the account of Kirill Malofeev, the son of Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian billionaire sanctioned by the US Treasury Department over financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea.
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