Ukraine has received tons of crypto wallet addresses connected to Russian politicians after the nation mounted an effort to find and blacklist such wallets, said Artem Afian, the private lawyer entrusted with the responsibility.
“Our idea was that the war criminals will try to avoid sanction through crypto and we want to get them there,” said Afian.
The de facto head of crypto matters in the Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, asked for this information on Saturday. Fedorov, the deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation, tweeted a clarion call for information on crypto wallets held by Russian and Belarusian politicians.
Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Twitter that he was asking “all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users.” He had earlier solicited information about digital wallets associated with Russian and Belorussian politicians, saying that the Ukrainian crypto community was ready to offer a “generous reward” to anyone who provided tips. The rewards will be funded by private donations, according to Artem Afian, a lawyer managing the effort. Quoted by Bloomberg, he said the campaign has already received tips matching political figures with crypto addresses. The plan is to share them with major exchanges and the blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis which has been monitoring Russian transactions. Afian stated: We want them to understand that they are not welcome in Ukraine or in crypto.
While it was initially unclear how the biggest exchanges would respond to Fedorov’s latest call, the CEOs of several of them have publicly shared their support for Ukraine since the Russian invasion. On Sunday, a verified Twitter handle associated with Binance posted that the exchange was donating $10 million “to help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” and an affiliate, the Binance Charity Foundation, launched a fund to provide emergency relief through crypto crowdfunding.
“However, we are taking the steps necessary to ensure we take action against those that have had sanctions levied against them while minimizing impact to innocent users,” Binance said. “Should the international community widen those sanctions further, we will apply those aggressively as well.”
Ukraine seeks cryptocurrency info of politicians from Russia, Belarus
