Russia:
The US and EU have decided to cut off a number of Russian Banks from SWIFT. The assets of Russia’s central bank are also expected to be frozen, constraining Moscow’s ability to access its overseas reserves.
“Russia has had a lot of time to think about this specific consequence.” observes Michael Parker, a former U.S. federal prosecutor who now heads the anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions practice at the Washington law firm Ferrari & Associates. “It would be naïve to think that they haven’t gamed out exactly this scenario,” he adds.
So, what’s the solution for Russia?
Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on blockchain, but new tools developed in Russia can help to hide the origin of these transactions. That would allow other parties to trade with Russian entities without being detected.
Russia won’t be the first country to use cryptocurrencies to evade Sanctions. Iran and North Korea are among the countries that have used digital currencies to mitigate the effects of Western sanctions.
What will happen to Cryptocurrencies price ?
If Russia will make the transactions by using Cryptocurrencies, it may lead to the highest crypto raise we’ve seen so far.
For now, there are thousands of questions on how will they do it and maybe further clarifications will be revealed next days.