The UK, EU, US and Canada moved at the weekend to expel Russian banks from Swift, the main global payments messaging system used by banks, and have also sought to prevent Russia\u2019s central bank from using its foreign currency reserves.<\/p>\n
Following this, with the concern that Russia may use digital currencies to bypass the sanctions, cryptocurrency exchanges which enable the trade of digital currencies have been coming under pressure to comply with western sanctions, by blocking transactions with Russia, but the founder of one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms has refused.<\/p>\n
The chief executive and founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, said the company was \u201cnot in a position to sanction, like, populations of people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a few hundred individuals that are on the international sanctions list in Russia, mostly politicians, and we follow that very, very strictly,\u201d Zhao told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe differentiate between the Russian politicians who start wars and the normal people, many normal Russians do not agree with war.\u201d “We are not political, we are against war, but we are here to help the people.\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Zhao, known as \u201cCZ\u201d, said he did not know how many of the platform\u2019s accounts had been frozen as a result of links with Russia but insisted that Binance knows its customers and would not allow sanctioned individuals to use its services. “The right level of sanctions is not a debate with us. We don\u2019t make sanction lists,\u201d Zhao said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are tens of thousands of exchanges globally. Many of them are very small, many of them are less secure. Many of them are less compliant. We don\u2019t control the industry. I can publish my sanction list, you can publish yours, guess what? No one else is going to follow it. It just moves Russian users to other smaller platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhao said he did not believe that cryptocurrencies \u2013 which are held on a decentralised ledger \u2013 would enable people to dodge sanctions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people want to evade sanctions, there\u2019s always multiple methods. You can avoid sanctions using US dollars, using cash, using diamonds, using gold. I don\u2019t think crypto is anything special there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhao, whose personal wealth has been estimated at $1.9bn (\u00a31bn) by Forbes magazine\u2019s billionaires list, mentioned that Binance had donated $10m to aid the humanitarian effort in Ukraine and help those fleeing the conflict.<\/p>\n