What to know : Russia banned Ukrainian crypto exchange WhiteBIT, making any interaction with the company a criminal offense within Russian borders. WhiteBIT has actively supported Ukraine's war effort, donating $11 million to military initiatives and processing over $160 million in donations. The exchange has continued to grow, expanding to 8 million users and entering the U.S. market despite Russian pressure.
Russia has officially banned Ukrainian-founded cryptocurrency exchange WhiteBIT, escalating efforts to crack down on firms it says are supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
The country’s prosecutor general designated WhiteBIT and its parent company, W Group, as “undesirable organizations,” a legal label that criminalizes any activity involving the firm in Russia.
Russian authorities accused the exchange of building “gray schemes” to channel funds out of the country and supporting the Ukrainian military through financial and technical infrastructure since the start of the war in February 2022.
WhiteBIT, founded in 2018 by Ukrainian entrepreneur Volodymyr Nosov, said in a note shared with CoinDesk that the decision reinforces its commitment to supporting Ukraine.
The company said it left the Russian market in early 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. It blocked all Russian and Belarusian users and removed ruble trading pairs, a move that it says cost it about 30% of its user base at the time.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, one year into the war, started sending official letters to major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance, Bybit and WhitEBIT to block Russian users.
At the time, some exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken, responded, saying they wouldn’t be enforcing a blanket ban on Russian-linked addresses without being legally required to do so, but would instead block accounts or transactions involving sanctioned entities.
Despite the setback, WhiteBIT said it has grown eightfold since then, now serving over 8 million users and expanding into the U.S. market.
According to Russian prosecutors, WhiteBIT directed at least $11 million to Ukraine’s military, including nearly $1 million for drone procurement. The company confirmed the figures and said its payments processing arm, Whitepay, has facilitated over $160 million in donations to defense and humanitarian efforts.
“Over the four years of full-scale war, WhiteBIT has donated around 11 million USD of its own funds to support Ukraine’s defense forces and humanitarian initiatives for civilians. These actions reflect the company’s values and civic position as a business with roots in Ukraine operating during wartime,” the company said.
Russia’s designation means any Russian citizen who interacts with WhiteBIT could now face criminal charges.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
