Russia has been hit with numerous sanctions because of the war in Ukraine. According to the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, there are now signs that attempts are being made to circumvent them. Some Russians are said to be exchanging their rubles for cryptocurrencies.
“Currently, a striking number of rubles are being exchanged for cryptocurrencies,” Lagarde said on Tuesday. Postscript: “The sudden spike in crypto investments suggests that they are most likely being used to circumvent sanctions.”
ECB Executive Board member Fabio Panetta also stressed that cryptocurrencies can represent a “big loophole” at the heart of the financial system. As a result, there have been several speculations that wealthy Russians could use them as a tool to circumvent sanctions.
However, according to Jonathan Levin, co-founder of blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, there is no concrete evidence of this. In addition, he and several industry experts are of the opinion that the crypto market is too small to allow such a large-scale circumvention of sanctions.
