Binance Refuses Demands to Ban an Entire Country Russia
Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, called on cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze the accounts of Russian citizens.
I’m asking all major crypto exchanges to block the addresses of Russian users.
It’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians but also to sabotage ordinary users.
Our values and whatnot
Binance said that it would block the accounts of sanctioned Russian citizens but that it would not “unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts.”
“Crypto is meant to provide greater financial freedom for people across the globe. To unilaterally decide to ban people’s access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists.”
CNBC reached out to Kraken to ask the exchange about freezing accounts (aka to apply pressure on Kraken). The CEO of Kraken, Jesse Powell, wrote on Twitter that Kraken “cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so.”
The cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin told CNBC it would not freeze Russian user accounts.
Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin
“As a neutral platform, we will not freeze the accounts of any users from any country without a legal requirement. And at this difficult time, actions that increase the tension to impact the rights of innocent people should not be encouraged.”
DNL: Although these answers seem like somewhat of a win for the decoupling of cryptocurrency and state-sponsored financial censorship or arbitrary restrictions, the statements from the exchanges read like vaguely concealed calls for more sanctions against Russian citizens. I do not really follow exchanges so I do not know much about their owners. But from what I can tell, CZ seems unlikely to cave to the demands of outraged Twitter users. These centralized exchanges are obviously happy to comply with law enforcement in most cases though. And obviously all that matters to these companies is the bottom line.
Nobody should be keeping cryptocurrency in wallets outside of their control.
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Comments (17)
disturbed2022-03-0599f89ef0
Cryptocurrency is supposed to be decentralized and out of the reach of the governments control, as far as I am concerned, Ukraine is the enemy and propaganda is the tool, Binance, you have no right, boycott Binance.
6289703872022-03-0514a3e2a0
such ban defeat the purpose of cryptocurrencies. governments should learn that cryptocurrencies and its exchanges are not and will never be central banks. get over it pols.
smellyfart2022-03-051100d900
Seriously, how old are you, five, never heard of monero and many others oh you thought I was talking about bitcoin it too is decentralised but certain wants to control it, the physical currency tax payers pay a printer to make it.
appleseed2022-03-0710d9e360
5f8eaa8d bitcoin and monero are not decentralized the fact you can only come up with insults for people who question your statements speaks volumes of how little you know about these things.
ReC0DE2022-03-05c0769a50
They will never ban Russia. It's a part of forcing people to move on digital currency. Block accounts and allow only digital ones....
smellyfart2022-03-05275a6830
Do you think anything could be said freely in America and Canada recheck all social media rules, you think you are free, Russians are more free, ever see a bear ride a bike in public.
EarAche2022-03-089b5a95f0
no Exchanges are not just being greedy. Darknetlive: thanks for covering us. It would be great if you could add a quick list of the Exchanges that have openly refused a country wide account freeze. More than that, the CEO of binance is tweeting libertarian/anarchist views(a la the late McCafee) like 100 tweets per day. His response to Ukraine's request is 5 back-to-back tweets, I wish you would quote all of 5
EarAche2022-03-0807866280
edit: the CEO of kraken is the one with the awesome 5 tweets: "I understand the rationale for this request but, despite my deep respect for the Ukrainian people, @krakenfx cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so. Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent. #NYKNYC That requirement could come from your own government, as we have seen in Canada, in response to protests, bank runs and attempts to flee the country. It could come from foreign states, like the US, as a weapon to turn the Russian populace against its government's policies. FWIW, I would guess that the vast majority of crypto holders on @krakenfx are anti-war. #Bitcoin is the embodiment of libertarian values, which strongly favor individualism and human rights. In Canada, crypto was the only financial rail left for those who opposed the regime Our mission at @krakenfx is to bridge individual humans out of the legacy financial system..."
l2022-03-052937c9d0
do you really think Russia is pro privacy and free speech? or are you just against whatever is popular?
ddddd2022-03-0529a9a8c0
@e0a9b72c believe it or not people can have different opinions from you without it being just some contrarian trend. touch grass fuckface
714365780542022-03-08d78727d0
@e0a9b72c Surely Russia being an oppressive shithole is a good reason to continue allowing their people to use crypto to do things their government won't let them.
disturbed2022-03-056909eb00
Cryptocurrency is supposed to be decentralized and out of the reach of the governments control, as far as I am concerned, Ukraine is the enemy and propaganda is the tool, Binance, you have no right, boycott Binance.