Hillary Clinton Is ‘Disappointed’ That Some Crypto Exchanges Refused to Stop Servicing Russians

Former US presidential candidate – Hillary Clinton – criticized those cryptocurrency trading venues that refused to stop servicing Russian-based users. She once again opined that digital assets should be put under a regulatory framework.

Crypto Should Not Become an Escape Hatch to Russia

Amidst the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov – the latter’s Vice Prime Minister – asked the leading digital asset platforms to freeze all Russian users’ blockchain addresses. According to the politician, the move would weaken Russia and aid Ukraine’s defense.

In a recent interview for MSNBC, the former first lady Hillary Clinton said she is “disappointed” that some cryptocurrency exchanges still provide services to such users:

“I was disappointed to see that some of the so-called crypto exchanges, not all of them, but some of them are refusing to end transactions with Russia for some philosophy of libertarianism or whatever.”

In her view, everybody should do “as much as possible” to isolate the Russian economic activity. “That pressure will absolutely impact Putin. I think the Treasury Department, I think the Europeans should look at how they can prevent the crypto markets from giving an escape hatch to Russia.” she opined.

Among those exchanges that still service Russian-based traders are Binance and Kraken. The organizations argued that most of those users are against the war, and it would be against the concept of the crypto industry to freeze their accounts.

Clinton has raised her concerns on bitcoin and the altcoins numerous times. In November, she claimed that their broad adoption could destabilize whole nations.

As such, Biden’s administration started realizing how important it is to apply regulations on the industry, Clinton concluded.

Hillary Clinton. Source: CNBC

ECB President Urges for Regulations, Too

Earlier this week, Christine Lagarde – President of the European Central Bank – argued that establishing rules in the cryptocurrency universe is “critically important” at the moment. She explained that otherwise, Russia could use the asset class to bypass financial penalties:

“There are always criminal ways to circumvent prohibition, which is why it’s so critically important that MiCA is pushed through as quickly as possible, so we have a regulatory framework.”

Other EU members, including Germany, Spain, and Italy (all of which slammed Russia with financial sanctions), are also in favor of implementing supervision on the sector. According to them, criminals might use bitcoin and the alternative coins in money-laundering operations.