Coinbase CEO: Sanctions laws apply to all US individuals and businesses, and the crypto industry is not immune

Beijing time, March 4, according to Brian Armstrong, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, a reminder that according to US sanctions law, sanctions against Russia apply to all individuals and companies in the United States, which may have a very large impact on the existing crypto market.

Here is Brian Armstrong’s statement:

• We’ve seen some questions and discussion about whether crypto assets can be used to circumvent sanctions, and here are some thoughts.
  
  Every US company must comply with the law, and it does not matter whether your company deals with US dollars, crypto assets, gold, real estate or even non-financial assets. Sanctions laws apply to all US individuals and businesses.
  
  So it’s wrong to think that crypto companies like Coinbase don’t follow the law. We certainly do. That’s why we screen people who sign up for our services against global watchlists and block transactions from IP addresses that may belong to sanctioned individuals or entities, just like any other regulated financial services business.
  
  That being said, we do not think the risk of Russian oligarchs using cryptocurrency to evade sanctions is high. Because it is an open ledger, attempts to transfer money via cryptocurrency are easier to trace than using other assets such as US dollar cash, art, gold, etc.
  
  By the way, this is not just my opinion, experts from the US Treasury and NSC agree with this view, for example:

• Additionally, we are not actively banning all Russians from using Coinbase; we believe that everyone should have access to basic financial services unless otherwise required by law.
  
  Now, since Russia's currency has collapsed, some ordinary Russians are using cryptocurrencies as a lifeline, and many of them may be against what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them as well. That said, if the U.S. government decides to impose a ban, we will certainly comply with those laws.
  
  Sanctions are a complex issue and the situation is changing rapidly, so we will continue to work with law enforcement and governments and take additional steps as needed.

After reading Brian Armstrong's statement, I realized the seriousness of the problem.

We know that in addition to the common prohibitions, the recent sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States on Russia have also confiscated a large amount of Russian assets, which has violated the principle of "the sanctity and inviolability of private property."

In the cryptocurrency market, centralized US entities like Coinbase can not only block services, but also confiscate users' crypto assets. In addition, centralized custodial assets such as USDC, USDT, and WBTC can also be directly frozen by issuers (there have been many cases).

Therefore, Brian Armstrong’s statement has actually reminded us of the necessity of exchanging decentralized assets (such as real BTC or decentralized stablecoins) in order to truly control our own crypto assets.