March 18, 2022
By Priyanka Shetty
Democratic U.S. senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would enable the president to sanction foreign cryptocurrency firms doing business with sanctioned Russian units and stop them from transacting with U.S. customers.
Here is what you need to know:
- The Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Act is led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and co-sponsored by 10 other Democrats, including Senators Mark Warner and Jon Tester.
- The bill that is unlikely to be a law soon can exert pressure on crypto exchanges by allowing the Treasury secretary to block digital asset platforms operating in the United States from transacting with any Russian crypto users, a step that major crypto exchanges like Coinbase (COIN.O) and Kraken have said they would not take without a legal requirement.
- The bill would also require the Treasury to publicly identify foreign crypto trading platforms deemed to be at high risk for sanctions evasion and money laundering, and would require U.S. taxpayers to report any offshore crypto transactions exceeding $10,000.
- The Treasury Department has emphasized that digital asset firms are required to comply with the sanctions.
About the author
Based in Bengaluru, Priyanka Shetty is a freelance writer for Blockchain Asset Review.
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