Bank of Russia Identified as Initiator of BestChange Block

The Bank of Russia has been identified as the initiator behind the blocking of the cryptocurrency exchange aggregator BestChange, according to comments made by the service’s lawyers to ForkLog.

They speculate that the restrictions may have been imposed due to legal requirements concerning mining, particularly those preventing the advertisement of digital currencies to the general public. Another potential reason cited by the lawyers involves issues with one of the exchange points monitored by the service.

“We are currently inquiring with the central bank to ascertain the exact reason for the block and are engaging with the regulator to clarify the situation,” added representatives of BestChange.

Further details will be provided following a response from the central bank.

The prohibition on advertising digital assets, mining services, exchanges, and exchangers is stipulated in the law regulating cryptocurrency mining, enacted in late July 2024.

Violations of this advertising ban incur administrative fines for advertisers, producers, and distributors of the relevant products:

• for individuals — 2000-2500 rubles;
• for officials — 4000-20,000 rubles;
• for legal entities — 100,000-500,000 rubles.

Earlier, ForkLog reported that the company “Yandex” updated its advertising requirements, banning the promotion of cryptocurrencies on its platform. Participants of the CryptoSummit forum also encountered similar restrictions.