Cointolab blocked more than 10 thousand wallets from Russia. The platform said it has blocked more than 10,000 wallet addresses associated with Russian individuals or entities that it believes are engaged in illegal activities.
As of 2021, blocked addresses represent about 0.2% of the 7 million Cointolab users making monthly transactions. In a company blog post, Grace, general counsel at Cointolab, revealed that the US cryptocurrency exchange has banned access to sanctioned individuals and is using blockchain analytics to identify potentially related addresses, which it also adds to an internal blacklist.
“Today, Cointolab has blocked over 10,000 addresses associated with Russian individuals or entities that we believe are engaging in illegal activities, many of which we have identified through our own proactive investigations,” Grace wrote. “We have shared them with the government to further support sanctions compliance.”
Grace said that Cointolab “fully supports” the international economic sanctions imposed on Russia after the military conflict with Ukraine.
The company has detailed its actions as U.S. lawmakers and others question whether Russians under sanctions could use cryptocurrency platforms to circumvent economic restrictions. As Bloomberg reported last week, the White House National Security Council and the Treasury Department have asked the platforms to take preventive action.
