Ukraine makes clarion call for Crypto Crackdown against Russia

tech.hindustantimes.com:

The Ukrainian government escalated its rhetoric against Russian crypto users on Sunday, saying it was time to “sabotage ordinary users.” Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Twitter that he was asking “all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users.” He had earlier solicited information about digital wallets associated with Russian and Belorussian politicians, saying that the Ukrainian crypto community was ready to offer a “generous reward” to anyone who provided tips.

The government has already used Twitter to draw in millions of dollars worth of crypto donations and posted in online hacker forums that it is looking for help in protecting against cyberattacks.

While it was initially unclear how the biggest exchanges would respond to Fedorov’s latest call, the CEOs of several of them have publicly shared their support for Ukraine since the Russian invasion. On Sunday, a verified Twitter handle associated with Binance posted that the exchange was donating $10 million “to help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” and an affiliate, the Binance Charity Foundation, launched a fund to provide emergency relief through crypto crowdfunding.

In response to Fedorov’s tweet, a Binance spokesperson told Bloomberg by email that the exchange would not “unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts” as this would “fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists.”

“However, we are taking the steps necessary to ensure we take action against those that have had sanctions levied against them while minimizing impact to innocent users,” Binance said. “Should the international community widen those sanctions further, we will apply those aggressively as well.”

Elsewhere, DMarket, a crypto platform for trading