Washington’s concerns about Russia using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine stem from officials’ limited understanding of how blockchain works, said Brad Garlinghouse, the head of Ripple, in an interview with Fox Business.
“I’m afraid this is due to a lack of knowledge, a lack of information about how cryptocurrency actually works. This does a disservice to honest market players like Ripple, who work with the government,” he said.
Garlinghouse stressed that he supports Ukraine, and his company will comply with all sanctions requirements imposed by the US government. He said American companies are obliged to follow regulator orders, regardless of whether they deal in fiat or digital assets.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, voiced a similar view. He also noted that blockchain allows tracking of any transactions, especially when it comes to large transfers.
The head of Ripple added that there is not enough liquidity in the cryptocurrency market for Russia to use digital assets to finance military actions.
“Before the sanctions were imposed, Russia’s daily cross-border transaction volume was estimated at $50 billion. The cryptocurrency market was nowhere near,” he said.
Garlinghouse also spoke about the ongoing lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He said the court would decide sooner rather than later.
As a reminder, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, platforms Kuna, WhiteBIT and CEX.io blocked Russian users.
Russian clients were also blocked by the South Korean platform Gopax.