Geopolitics and Cryptos – About ten years ago, when Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies were sometimes mocked, who would have thought that they would become a stake in showdown strategy between UNITED STATES and the Russia ? This 1er February 2023, the Treasure American has in any case just demonstrated the geopolitical stake represented by cryptos. Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) would indeed have been used to get around US sanctions against the Russians.
The constant monitoring of blockchain transactions by OFAC
The services ofOffice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department have already been talked about in the cryptosphere, on numerous occasions. It was, for example, OFAC that launched the Cabal Against Tornado Cash Crypto Mixerand who wants force censorship of Ethereum transactions which do not suit him.
It is in this spirit that the Foreign Assets Control Office has just pointed the finger two crypto addresses. In a press release published at the beginning of February, the OFAC announced that “full blocking sanctions” against 22 persons and entities (in several countries), which would be linked to a “sanctions evasion network” supporting Russia.
The press release specifies that the measures taken are part of the strategy ofextraterritoriality of American law, aiming to:
“(…) methodically and intensively target sanctions-busting efforts [étasuniennes] in the whole world “.
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BTC and ETH addresses of a Russian national “blocked” (under sanctions)
OFAC’s action particularly concerns Igor Vladimirovich Zimenkov, as well as his son, Jonatan Zimenkov. They are accused by the American service of having supported Russian companies like Rosoboroneksport And Rostecboth under US sanctions, as well as a Belarusian company (Belspetsvneshtechnika), also under sanctions.
And as can be seen below, an address Bitcoin (XBT) and an address Ethereum (ETH) of Jonatan Zimenkov are now on the blacklist of OFAC. All entities, US and foreign, complying with US law therefore have prohibition to have a link with these addresses, under penalty of prosecution.
Obviously, these addresses are not “blocked” as such, thanks to the resistance to censorship of these networks decentralized (at least for Bitcoin, for Ethereum, it is more complicated). They will therefore be able, for example, to continue to exchange with countries already under sanctions the United States. And this list of embargoed nations lengthens more and more :
If the US Treasury Department can’t block transactions in bitcoins (and in ethers, still for the moment), they have been working for quite a while already to trace, track, and identify blockchain transactions contrary to US interests. The problem that may arise for the United States is that the entities under sanctions will soon be so manythat they could end up making blockchain exchanges between themwith “US blacklisted” addresses on both sides.
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