Satoshi Labs, the manufacturer of hardware wallet Trezor, has said that it stopped sending its cold wallet shipments to Russia immediately after the sanctions. This makes it yet another company to comply with the global sanctions on Russia.
Hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor is the latest company to pull out of Russia, with company spokespersons of Satoshi Labs (Trezor’s parent company) saying that it would not be delivering cold wallets to Russia.
There has been some discussion as to whether Russian citizens may use crypto to avoid the effects of the sanctions. The EU has talked about including crypto under the sanctions to prevent any skirting around the sanctions.
The actions against Russia have come swiftly following its aggressive steps against Ukraine. PayPal, Mastercard, and Visa have all suspended their services in the country, and even the famously neutral Switzerland has frozen crypto assets of key Russians.
But there has been a lot of concern regarding the effect of crypto on ordinary Russian citizens. This is what some in the crypto industry are highlighting. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that crypto could be a lifeline to these innocent citizens.
Still, the crypto world is in the midst of a precarious situation as it aims to hold true to the spirit of decentralization, while also not falling foul of authorities. It remains to be seen as to whether any change will take place over the coming months.
Crypto markets a talking point of Russia-Ukraine conflict
Trezor’s decision to stop serving Russia is in sharp contrast to some other cryptocurrency entities. Kraken and Coinbase both announced that they would not stop their services in the country. This led to some backlash from the wider world.
Authorities behind the sanctions have asked crypto entities to comply with the global effort to put pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The response from the crypto world has been mixed. Binance has frozen the accounts of those on the sanction list, though it has not stopped services altogether.
On the matter of supporting Ukraine more directly, however, the crypto world has acted in unison. Several projects and platforms have sent donations to Ukraine, and the donation amounts have been estimated to be above $50 million. Satoshi Labs has also donated one million euros in the form of BTC to Ukraine.
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