In May, Russia’s central bank said it’s exploring the usage of cryptocurrency for international payments as a way to duck Western sanctions after previously calling for a ban on it. That’s after the EU, the US, and other allies cut off Russia’s access to half its more than $600 billion of foreign currency reserves and blocked Russian banks from Swift, the international financial messaging system.
According to TRM Labs, fundraising via cryptocurrencies to finance Russia’s war is likely to persist.
“Sanctions and observed service disruptions to the Russian electronic banking infrastructure will likely lead to further adoption of cryptocurrency amongst Telegram channels fundraising for the invasion of Ukraine,” TRM Labs said in its report.
