Poloniex adds GAS, blocks Crimea

The popular cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has recently added the support of GAS token trading in pair with Bitcoin and Ethereum. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are surprised why GAS is supported without NEO.

In other news, the Russian investment forums are discussing that users from Crimea cannot get access to the exchange. One of investors even posted the official response from Poloniex: “Our systems have detected that you may be in Crimea. Unfortunately Poloniex is halting use of the exchange for Crimearesidents [sic] and citizens. If you are in Crimea or are an Crimea citizen, you will have the option of a one-time withdrawal and account closure.” The company also outlines what to do if they indicated the user residence incorrectly.

Looks like that Poloniex, being a law-abiding US-based exchange, has decided to avoid future risks and suspend all operations with the residents of Crimea. This peninsula de-facto became the territory of the Russian Federation in 2014 due to the peaceful referendum (as the Kremlin insists), or, as the United Nations majority claims, was annexed with the use of modern military tactics. Since that dispute started, many companies, even the Russian Sberbank, avoid working with Crimea as a part of Russia, because the annexation was declared illegal by the UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/68/262 and the risk of sanctions and reputation losses is very high.