The Central Bank of Russia has recently expanded its database of financial market players suspected of illicit activities. Several crypto companies have actually been contributed to the list in addition to entities bearing indications of Ponzi plans, in addition to unlawful credit companies and forex dealerships.
Central Bank of Russia Blacklists Crypto Platforms
As part of its monitoring of the financial sector, the Central of Russia (CBR) regularly identifies illegal financial services providers and warns Russian investors about fraudulent platforms. This week, the regulator included another 105 companies to its growing list of companies revealing “signs of illegal activities in the financial market.”
Among the new entries, the monetary authority has blacklisted a number of crypto companies. Most of them have been classified as resembling financial pyramid schemes. Bitflows, Bitkoresh, Bittrex-international, Crypto Invest Club, Idleminer, Miners Capital, and Money Miner fall under this classification. Another entity, Bitford, has been designated as an “illegal professional participant in the securities market.”
The bank advised the general public that in order to use most financial services in the Russian Federation, suppliers are needed to get a license from the reserve bank or register with the regulator. “If this condition is not met, then, most likely, the organization operates illegally, and consumers can be deceived,” the authority says while also warning it’s not obliged by current law to compensate victims of illegal platforms.
Last month, Bank of Russia blacklisted 3 entities — To The Mars, To The Moon, and TTM Group — connected to the promo of the Finiko crypto pyramid. inancial damages attributed to the Ponzi scheme, one of the largest in modern Russian history, amount to $4 billion, according to independent estimates quoted by Forklog. A report by Chainalysis exposed the pyramid got over $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in less than 2 years prior to it collapsed this summertime.
CBR blacklisted Finiko in February and a batch of 15 cryptocurrency projects was added in June, the crypto news outlet noted. “To suppress illegal financial activities, the Bank of Russia takes measures to block the websites of such companies, and also interacts with law enforcement and other authorized bodies, foreign regulators to apply other measures,” the authority discussed.
The Central Bank of Russia has continuously opposed the adoption of cryptocurrencies, issuing multiple warnings for investors. Last week, its Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov specified the bank would not support increasing access to crypto markets, firmly insisting cryptocurrency is “highly risky and has signs of a pyramid scheme.” Earlier in September, the regulator recommended banks block cards and wallets used to transact with crypto exchangers, and in July, CBR advised Russian stock exchanges to avoid trading crypto instruments.
