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Coinbase on Monday became one of the first major centralized crypto exchanges to announce a wide ban on Russian people utilizing its services.
Coinbase, said hundreds of accounts linked to Russians have been banned, and the company said it would support Western sanctions on Russia.
“Today, Coinbase blocks over 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals or entities we believe to be engaging in illicit activity, many of which we have identified through our own proactive investigations,” a statement from the company read.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had already said last week that Coinbase would go along with sanctions against Russia by blocking the accounts of Russian clients of major Russian banks listed under sanctioning.
Coinbase is a centralized exchange, which means it holds cryptos for people using its service, unless users transfer crypto off the exchange and into their own crypto wallet, protected with private keys (involving a phrase a user can keep from anyone’s access).
Savvy crypto investors have a saying: “not your [private] keys, not your crypto.”