worldcoinindex.com
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed the dynamics of global finance to a certain extent and once again brought crypto into the limelight. There have been growing speculations that Russia has been using crypto to its leverage to dodge the Western sanctions on it.
Although the West has been figuring out how to stop Russians from evading sanction, the European Commission has confirmed that crypto assets will come under additional sanctions targeted against Russia and Belarus.
The official statement coming from the European Commission reads: “For Belarus, the measures introduce SWIFT prohibitions similar to those in the Russia regime, clarify that crypto assets fall under the scope of “transferable securities” and further expand the existing financial restrictions by mirroring the measures already in place regarding Russia sanctions”.
As we know that Russia has been removed from the SWIFT cross-border payment network which has been largely controlled by the West. Furthermore, some of the top payment and settlement companies like Visa and Mastercard have announced their exit from Russia.
Many analysts refer this to be an “economic warfare” against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Although skepticism remains around Russia’s use of crypto assets, it hasn’t been validated enough. In fact, the Ruble-denominated crypto activity has been on a decline since the invasion.
On the other hand, both the EU and the U.S. are working on strengthening the crypto regulations at their end. Next week on March 14, the European Parliament Committee on Economics and Monetary Affairs will hold a vote on regulatory framework for digital assets.
On the other hand, President Biden has signed an crypto executive order asking all concerned federal agencies to have a coordinated approach in building the crypto regulatory framework. Furthermore, the executive order also asks to look after building a framework for central bank digital currency aka Digital Dollar.
The crypto regulations will bring clear framework for institutions to participate while ensuring investor safety at the same time. The news of Biden signing the crypto executive order pumped the crypto market on Wednesday, however, Bitcoin has once again corrected 5% slipping under $40,000 levels.