EU Releases Fifth Sanction To Block Deposits Into Crypto Wallets

Key Insights:

• The European Union announced the new sanctions today.
• Coal import, access to EU ports, and deposits into crypto wallets have been banned.
• After the G7, Japan, and NATO sanctions, the EU continues to intensify these penalties.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues to bring harm to not just the citizens of Ukraine but also to the citizens of Russia.

The sanctions imposed on the country in response to Russia’s “special military operation” have been breaking the country’s economy, and it looks like the European Union (EU) intends on making things worse for them.

Russia Sanctioned. Again!

Released today, the fifth package of Sanctions against the Russian Federation targeted a more specific set of goods and services to break the country’s financial system further.

This set of sanctions attacked the coal and import bans, adding another $6 billion worth of products to the already embargoed list, including cement, rubber products, wood, liquor, and more.

In addition to this, another €10 billion ($10.86 billion) worth of targeted export bans have also been announced, which will include advanced semiconductors.

These advanced semiconductors might also include ones used for mining cryptocurrencies, and in doing so, the EU might make it difficult for Russia to own and operate any crypto to escape the sanctions. 

As it is, many countries have already ensured blocking the Russian accounts and eliminating any possible path of said escape.

As reported by FXEmpire, the white house had asked crypto exchanges to follow the same strategy.

Following in the footsteps of other countries, even Japan ordered its crypto exchanges to comply with the sanctions against Russia and even announced penalties for the crypto exchanges that failed to do so.

Thus, in line with the same, the EU announced an extended prohibition on deposits to crypto-wallets today, making it further difficult for people to use crypto in Russia.

Furthermore, in the official announcement, the EU said,

“The Commission also welcomes that an additional 217 individuals and 18 entities have now been sanctioned. This includes all 179 members of the so-called “governments” and “parliaments” of Donetsk and Luhansk. In total, 1091 individuals and 80 entities have been sanctioned since 2014.”

Russia’s Escape

Since fiat has become an impossible escape in the world, the country has been relying on crypto. But with many global exchanges blocking the sanctioned individuals, these people have been looking into other ways to make this happen.

One of them includes liquidating their assets in countries that haven’t blocked them off completely.

Russians have been trying to sell their cryptocurrencies for cash in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and are also trying to buy real estate to make some sense of their money.

In addition to the same, the Russian Deputy Energy Minister also demanded the legalization of crypto mining so that Russia can get its hands on crypto without relying on exchanges as the fiat continues to lose its value.