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In a statement on Tuesday, Currency.com said that Russian citizens would no longer be able to access their services following a decision to ban customers in Russia from opening new accounts on the platform. According to Currency.com's website, the Gibraltar-based cryptocurrency trading platform has offices in Kyiv, London and Vilnius but was originally licensed and headquartered in Belarus.
"We condemn the Russian aggression in the strongest possible terms," said Vitalii Kedyk, head of strategy for the London office and managing director of Currency.com's branch in Ukraine. "In this case, we cannot continue to serve our customers in Russia."
A spokesman for Currency.com said that the platform "does not represent companies that continue to provide services to Russia," but it has no plans to continue operating in the country. According to the spokesperson, its business in Russia accounts for no more than 15% of the platform's revenue, and the company will continue to expand in the UK and US markets in 2022.
Major cryptocurrency exchanges have responded with calls on social media. The majority demanded that they either freeze the digital assets of the Russians or restrict the access of the Russian people in the midst of the military attack on Ukraine. A Binance spokesperson said in February 2022 that the exchange would not "unilaterally freeze the accounts of millions of innocent users." Meanwhile, Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken, said that they will only restrict access to cryptocurrencies by Russian users as required by the sanctions.
However, many private businesses including credit card companies Visa and Mastercard announced on Feb. 24 that they would scale back or stop operating in Russia altogether because of the war. In contrast, the Ukrainian government has taken advantage of cryptocurrency platforms to solicit donations around the world, it has raised more than $60 million so far.
