EU calls for crypto regulation to prevent Russia from dodging sanctions

Steffy Bogdanova
March 3, 2022 8:50 am

The European Union is looking at measures on cryptocurrencies to prevent Russia from going around the economic sanctions, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Wednesday.

EU finance ministers and other officials talked about the risk that digital assets pose of Russia decides circumvent sanctions, officials said.

Le Maire said during a news conference:

We have decided to work on additional measures to further strengthen the effectiveness of these sanctions and avoid any bypassing of the sanctions decided by the 27 member states. In particular, we will take measures on cryptocurrencies, which must not be used to bypass the financial sanctions decided by the European Union.

The discussions in EU come as officials in US and UK also raise concerns hat crypto transactions could become a way to bypass the recently imposed sanctions on Russia and undermine the efforts to isolate the county’s economy.

North Korea regularly uses cyberattacks on cryptocurrency exchanges as a revenue source to fund its nuclear missile program, which is banned by the U.N. Security Council. According to the latest U.N. report, North Korean hackers have stolen $50 million from crypto exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia during the period between 2020 and mid-2021.

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Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
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