Topic: Blocking of Coinbase accounts in Russia (Read 108 times)

What is the current status of cryptocurrency regulation by the USA SEC? What new developments have emerged in this regard? Today, there is news that Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, has announced plans to relocate the company's headquarters from the USA if the SEC does not ease its regulations. Coinbase is one of the world's largest and most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges. What is the SEC hoping to achieve with this perceived witch hunt, and who could be the next target? Unlike Binance, which is not an American company, Coinbase is based in the USA. This situation needs to be addressed, and it is worth considering other perspectives and potential insider information to gain a more informed view.

even if its a real or digital asset it would be confiscated, central banks had already done similar thing. Even Binance is going to limit or block Russian customers from using their services.

And it bothers me why it's happened to Russian user's.
Hehehehe, if my intuitions are correct then , they must have used them fund's to push into Russia's account!
I heard similar talks about North Korea seizing some Cryptocurrencies from them user's to invest in nuclear weapons as they are not financially (100) stable.

I'm gonna say if it's a good decision from coinbase to suspend some Russian accounts because of what their government is doing in Ukraine account or not, the whole point is some people are going to lose getting access to their assets, but surely there can be some normal people who do not related to their governments and this a bad point of holding your assets on exchanges and especially the centralized exchanges no matter if it's the most famous and of the oldest exchanges in the world here is still a risk of losing all the assets if you are using the exchanges to hold your bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies there, however, if they decided to suspend the account of people who are related to their government this is a very good decision to suspend their accounts.

what people forget to realise is coinbase is not a pure crypto thing. the whole point of an exchange is a fiat-crypto gateway. people forget the fiat side. they forget to accept the realisation that fiat laws apply to exchanges

ofcourse coinbase is going to comply to fiat regulations.. they handle fiat!

as for the other part of the quote
coinbase cannot by law just seize/confiscate/takeover account funds. at a business level whim/discretion. all they can do is stop offering services(swapping/trades) by only allowing the user to exit the service via withdrawals. (at business level discretion)

though this is kind of tough. after all coinbase is not allowed to process russian wire transfers direct to russian bank accounts.  
though withdrawing via a euro/western bank is allowed at the request of the user, and its then the receiving banks problem to handle. where the bank then has to decide if it allows the funds moved to the euro/western bank account to then be moved to something resembling something russian.(if the bank feels the funds are russian related)

coinbase would send a SARS(suspicious activity report) if it suspects a user is russian. but cannot just keep the funds unless a court order demands it. so coinbase has to let the funds release to the owner if there is no court order. (caveat being not via a russian bank account)

in short its never a single process of 'you are under investigation, oops your funds are gone forever sorry, bye' its a multistep process with many caveats/loopholes and stages that need to be gone though legally to either have the funds released to the user at one end of the scale or seized by a government at the other end of the scale

there are 4 main stages
freeze
seize
confiscate
take ownership/surrender

freezing an account is just to stop offering services(trades/swaps) but the service has to offer a close and withdrawal/refund method.
this can be done at the businesses discretion to just want to not be involved with certain customers. so basically(heres your cash, now go, we dont like you)

seizing is by court order. this can be where the court requests the business to hold onto fund while investigations occur or funds to be moved to a authorities custody.

confiscation. this can take years and alot of court/legal process, requires not just proving the person is an outlaw/suspect/criminal. but that the asset in question was used related to a crime

take ownership/surrender
in most cases of civil forfeiture the game is simple. seize and confiscate certain amounts that are not worthy of the owner fighting over. EG border patrol can steal upto $10k knowing that any legal re-claim would cost the owner more then $10k to fight. thus in 99.999% of cases the owner just gives up and surrenders the value to the authority.(forfeit)

the onus if the owner wants his funds back is to prove that the assets were not linked to criminal activity. yep thats right. at the 'seize' stage a court only has to 'suspect' an asset is linked to a crime and does not require undeniable proof, just some little evidence of suspicion, it then becomes the owners mission to try and defend his innocence/prove his innocence of if the specific assets were used in a crime
EG although a russian oligarch has ties to russian military. his bitcoin or yacht may or may not have been used for russian military activities so the bitcoin/yacht is still in legal limbo, if the court has acted on the suspicious activity report

many people think innocent until proven guilty is law.. but its not... technically
EG if you dont turn up to court. does not mean you stay innocent. you literally lose by default, because if the only story being told is of suspicion of crime and that claim is not denied/defended. then its deemed an admission of guilt via lack of denial/defence

In other words the centralized exchanges just got another excuse to rob their users and make millions in the process. This is not the first time they do something like this to select group of people and it won't be the last.

Not your keys, Not your coins

It is simply a company (listed on an American stock exchange) complying with the legal system in the jurisdiction in which it resides. They should certainly give fair warning if it was expanded to the general population of Russia, outside of named individuals or connections to them. Unfortunately the war started by Putin has caused all these difficulties and until it ends there doesn't seem to be a reasonable way out of these sanctions.

No, what was implemented was a ban on Russian accounts, not the confiscation of their assets there. So it is not useless because the goal will be met. And why would Coinbase confiscate the funds of their Russian users? Do they even have the right to do that? It does not mean that because the accounts are owned by Russians, the funds are obtained through illegal means. So confiscating these funds are equivalent to stealing them. And that's illegal.

We already have a topic for this.

Topic: Coinbase is likely to restrict rich Russian accounts https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/coinbase-is-likely-to-restrict-rich-russian-accounts-5397707

Even though they made a ban, they can still withdraw it, it's useless, isn't it, guys, unless they load a direct freeze system so that everything is stopped without being able to connect anything else.
And they will of course transfer their fund assets first if they already know the news, of course they will not stay silent either.

What is so interesting when Coinbase is a centralized exchange that operates according to the dictates of those in power and within the bounds of legal declarations? Whether Coinbase has a totally different opinion on matters regarding sanctions does not matter at all when the powers that be are instructing them to ban Russian accounts. At least, Coinbase are not immediately freezing and blocking accounts. Withdrawals are allowed.

I have found this news somewhat interesting, and it is about the Coinbase platform blocking Russian wallet addresses.


Investigating, it is estimated that it was more than 25,000 accounts blocked.


The exchange did not specify what documents users must provide to verify that they are not subject to EU sanctions.

This letter comes on the heels of Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal on Twitter.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1521487189431001089

Source: https://cryptoslate.com/coinbase-to-shut-down-some-russian-accounts-due-to-eu-sanctions/