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The crypto industry continues to battle bad media representation targeted at it. Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has called out media outlets that have misrepresented the decision of crypto exchanges to not sanction ordinary citizens of Russia.
CZ debunks false media claims
Zhao, known popularly as CZ, noted in a tweet that he had noticed some discrepancy between the decision Binance had reached and what the media – with no particular outlet mentioned – were saying.
CZ pointed out the facts to be that he recently said that some banks follow sanction rules. And in the same vein, Binance too was going to do the same. However, the media has been reporting that crypto exchanges do not sanction Russians, and do not follow sanction rules.
Fact:
Banks (most of them I hope) follow sanction rules.
Crypto exchanges (at least Binance) follow sanction rules.Media:
Crypto exchanges don't sanction Russia normal people.
Crypto exchanges don't follow sanction rules.🤷♂️
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) March 3, 2022
His rant is coming on the back of calls by the government of Ukraine for crypto exchanges to take action against Russia. Through Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation, Ukraine has asked all major crypto exchanges to block Russians from accessing the crypto market.
However, the Binance boss has been very clear on the crypto exchange’s stance as an establishment. While speaking with the Wall Street Journal, CZ stated that Binance is working with a dedicated team to ensure that all sanctioned individuals and entities do not use the exchange.
Nonetheless, Binance would not fulfill Ukraine’s request to have every single Russian citizen blocked from the crypto marketplace. CZ said that doing so would not be in the best interest of ordinary citizens.
Binance follows sanctions rules very strictly. Whoever is on the sanctions list, they won’t be able to use our platform, for whoever is not, they can,” Zhao said in an interview.
Other crypto exchanges also share the same view as Binance. Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, said that only a legal requirement would compel the exchange to freeze the accounts of its Russian clients.
Similarly, Johnny Lyu, the CEO of KuCoin, said that the crypto exchange is a neutral platform and would not freeze the accounts of any of its users no matter their country except to meet legal requirements.
And at this difficult time, actions that increase the tension to impact the rights of innocent people should not be encouraged, he remarked.
Crypto transactions volumes continue to surge in Russia
As the war between both countries continues, Russia has been feeling the brunt of sanctions imposed on it. Added to sanctions from the other countries, private companies are also ending their services to Russia. MasterCard, Visa, and Apple are a few companies that have ended their relationship with the country.
Resulting from this, the Russian economy has been falling. The exchange rate of the Ruble reached its lowest with both the dollar and Bitcoin.
To cope with the sanctions, Russians have been increasingly turning to crypto.
Data from CoinMetrics recently showed that crypto trading has seen an uptick in Russia.
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