Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has slammed the Biden administration and European governments for failing to put pressure on cryptocurrency exchanges to stop dealing with Russian users.

During her appearance on MSNBC Monday night, she delivered sharp criticism about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bitcoin and Ethereum, however, rose 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

According to Clinton, some major cryptocurrency exchanges refuse to block all accounts belonging to Russian users, while others refuse to do so entirely.

She said, "I was disappointed to see that some of the so-called crypto exchanges, not all of them but some of them, are refusing to end transactions with Russia for some, I don’t know, philosophy of libertarianism or whatever."

Added, “If there has to be legal or regulatory pressure, everybody should do as much as possible to isolate Russian economic activity right now.”

According to CNBC, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, will block the accounts of sanctioned Russian citizens, but will not "unilaterally" freeze all Russian accounts.

Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, requested on Sunday that all major cryptocurrency exchanges block the addresses of all Russian users, including ordinary users. He tweeted that it is critical to freeze not only addresses associated with Russian and Belarusian politicians but also addresses associated with ordinary users as well.

On social media, the debate over cryptocurrency in Ukraine is heating up, with topics ranging from suggesting a new bitcoin specifically for Ukraine to others wondering why all exchanges associated with Russia or having Russian users are not stopped.

Cryptocurrency exchanges believe that prohibiting Russians from transacting with them would be disadvantageous to their business. Prohibition on Russian accounts, according to a Binance spokesperson, goes against everything bitcoin and crypto stand for.

Pavan A

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA