NEW DELHI: Coinbase, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has blocked over 25,000 addresses associated with Russian individuals or entities involved in illegal activity.
When a user opens an account, Coinbase checks the provided information against a list of sanctioned individuals or entities provided by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United Nations, Singapore, Canada, and Japan, as well as blocking users from sanctioned areas such as Crimea, North Korea, Syria, and Iran.
"If someone opens a Coinbase account and is later sanctioned, we will use this ongoing screening process to identify and close that account. Because sanction evaders frequently attempt to conceal their identities, Coinbase actively works to map transactions beyond the entities and individuals specifically flagged by governments "It said in a late-night statement on Monday.
"Through advanced blockchain analysis, we proactively identified over 1,200 additional addresses potentially associated with the sanctioned individual, which we added to our internal blocklist," said Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal.
Outside of Coinbase, the company keeps a list of accounts held by sanctioned people, according to the company. "When the United States sanctioned a Russian national in 2020, three associated blockchain addresses were specifically listed," it said.
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