The European Union has banned Russians from using cryptocurrency

The European Union has approved a new package of sanctions, according to which Russians are prohibited from owning and using crypto wallets on the territory of European EU countries. Previously, the limit of crypto assets was €10 thousand, but now the ban applies to any amount. This decision applies to all wallets, accounts and services on the largest crypto exchanges, such as Binance or Coinbase. 

At the end of September, the crypto platform CoinDesk already reported that as part of a new package of sanctions, the European Union may prohibit Russians from making payments on crypto wallets. The new measures mean that the limit will be reduced to zero and Russians will not be able to store funds in EU crypto wallets.

The purpose of such measures was to prevent circumvention of sanctions using cryptocurrencies. Since the beginning of March, Russians have started to buy cryptocurrency en masse, since it can be used to transfer money abroad. Thus, the trading volume of the Tether stablecoin in March broke a historical record, amounting to $34.94 million (Tether is the only stablecoin that can be traded in rubles). Until March, Tether's trading volume was around 5 million and below.

What is the threat of a new ban?

The new sanctions will primarily affect those sites whose headquarters are registered in the European Union. In this case, storing and working with cryptocurrency will become inaccessible to Russians if they do not have a residence permit or a document of permanent residence in a European country. 

However, Russian users will still have access to decentralized exchanges that do not have a centralized intermediary between the seller and the buyer (like Binance or Coinbase), and crypto assets are traded using smart contracts.