Hillary Clinton criticises Bitcoin exchanges for dealing with Russians

The former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is “disappointed” that some cryptocurrency exchanges still serve Russian citizens. She said this in an MSNBC interview.

In her words, this is not the reaction she expected after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I was disappointed to see that some of the so-called crypto exchanges refuse to complete transactions with Russia,” Clinton said.

She added that economic activity in Russia should be isolated by any means possible right now.

Clinton also urged Western players to prevent Russia from using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions.

“The Treasury and Europeans should consider how they can prevent crypto markets from providing Russia with a loophole for both state and private transactions in the country and abroad,” she said.

Earlier, several exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance and Kraken, declined to block all Russian users, saying there were no legal grounds for doing so.

However, most of them made it clear that they would comply with sanctions if they are extended to individual citizens.

As reported, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, platforms Kuna, WhiteBIT and CEX.io blocked Russian users.

The South Korean exchange Gopax also blocked access for Russian clients.

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