Coinbase has announced that it has blocked over 25,000 addresses linked to Russian individuals or entities believed to be engaged in illegal activities.
The cryptocurrency exchange added that these accounts were identified through its own 'proactive investigations' and that the addresses have been shared with the U.S. government to provide further support for the enforcement of sanctions.
– In recent weeks, governments around the world have imposed a series of sanctions on individuals and territories in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions play a key role in promoting national security and deterring illegal aggression, and Coinbase fully supports these efforts by state authorities – stated Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal in a blog post two days ago.
Grewal’s announcement states that Coinbase aims to play its part in supporting 'critical economic sanctions' imposed on Russian individuals and entities amid the invasion of Ukraine.
To provide this support, the exchange states that it is taking steps to block access to sanctioned actors, detect attempts to evade sanctions, and anticipate threats. This includes procedures for screening potential users against lists of sanctioned individuals or entities and monitoring IP addresses belonging to sanctioned parts of the world, such as North Korea.
