Two of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O) and Binance, rejected calls on Friday for a blanket ban on all Russian users to stop their platforms from being used as a way round Western sanctions.
By staying put in Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine, the two exchanges are diverging from mainstream finance in a way some anti-money laundering experts and European regulators say weakens Western attempts to isolate Moscow.
“We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise,” Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said in a series of tweets on Friday.
The exchange, however, would enforce such a blanket ban if the U.S. government decides to impose one, Armstrong added.
“We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts,” a spokesperson of Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, said in an emailed statement to Reuters.