Four senators from the United States have written to Janet Yellen to express concern about Russia’s use of cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions.
Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary, on the Monitoring of Russian Efforts To Use Cryptocurrency To Evade Sanctions
The Wall Street Journal reported that Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary, spoke about how the Treasury Department monitors Russian attempts to evade sanctions by using crypto at an event hosted Wednesday by the University of Illinois. Yellen said:
We will continue to examine the effectiveness of the sanctions and determine if there are any leakages. If so, we have the opportunity to address them.
Four U.S. senators including Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter Wednesday to Yellen asking about the “Treasury Department’s progress in monitoring the cryptocurrency industry and enforcing sanctions compliance.”
Senators expressed concern that criminals, rogue state, and others may use digital assets or alternative payment platforms to conceal cross-border transactions for nefarious ends.
Yellen commented on the possibility of using cryptocurrency to evade sanctions.
I hear cryptocurrency often and it is definitely something to watch.
The treasury secretary said that cryptocurrency participants are subject to sanctions and anti-money laundering rules.
Many major cryptocurrency trading platforms, such as Kraken, Binance and Coinbase, have stated that they are cooperating with the government in order to comply with sanctions.
However, these cryptocurrency exchanges have rejected a request from the vice prime minister in Ukraine to block all Russian users.
Hillary Clinton, former first lady and secretary-of-state, felt ” disappointed“. She then urged the Biden administration pressure crypto exchanges to ban Russian users.
Treasury Secretary Yellen provided clarifications on the crypto sector:
However, there are still ways to get around it.
The Treasury Department released its October 2013 sanctions review . It stated that “We are conscious of the risk that these digital assets, and payment systems, could harm the effectiveness of our sanctions if left unchecked.”
A spokesperson for Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics platform, stated Wednesday that they have not found evidence of Russian sanctions evasion in cryptocurrency markets.
