JAKARTA – Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has bluntly commented on the possibility of Russia evading economic sanctions by using cryptocurrencies. According to CZ, crypto is not good for evading sanctions.
Ukraine has received donations in the form of cryptocurrency to help Ukrainian troops fight Russia. On the other hand, concerns about Russian oligarchs escaping economic sanctions by leveraging cryptocurrencies have increased.
CZ thinks that no smart person will choose crypto to avoid economic sanctions. He explained that crypto transactions are transparent and highly traceable. This transparency is thanks to the underlying technology of cryptocurrency itself, namely blockchain.
“If you look at the data, nobody's smart enough to do that. Crypto is too traceable, governments around the world are getting better at tracking crypto transactions. So crypto isn't good for that," CZ said in an interview with CNN.
CryptoPotato reports that Binance has joined other cryptocurrency giants such as Coinbase and Kraken in refusing to unilaterally freeze millions of Russian user accounts despite mentions that the platform complies with government sanctions.
Binance and Coinbase have their own reasons for refusing to freeze Russian user accounts. Binance is firmly against the politicians and dictators who started the war.
"We are not against the people. There are many people on both sides of Ukraine and Russia who are suffering and we want to help those people," said CZ.
However, there are still many who allege that crypto assets are used for illegal activities, including money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, and others. The US Treasury Department itself explained that the use of crypto assets for money laundering is still far below fiat currency and more traditional methods.
Previously, blockchain forensics company Elliptic had looked into the matter. Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson stated that crypto is not the right solution to evade authority. Because blockchain-based assets are known to have the best privacy, where large transfers and complex purchases can be made without being identified.
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