Russia Side-Stepping Western Sanctions by Trading Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and USDT for Oil: Report

Russia is using cryptocurrencies in oil transactions with India and China, according to a new Reuters report.

Citing “four sources with direct knowledge of the matter,” the new report claims that some Russian oil companies are using Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and USDT to ease the conversion of Indian rupees and Chinese yuan to Russian roubles.

The sources, who declined to be identified, claim the practice is a “small but growing” part of Russia’s oil trade.

The European Union (EU) sanctioned Russia last month, in part for previous sanction evasions.

Last week, Russian crypto exchange Garantex was forced to suspend operations due to the severity of the sanctions.

“Dear users! We have bad news. Tether has entered the war against the Russian crypto market and blocked our wallets worth more than 2.5 billion rubles.

We are temporarily suspending all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, while our entire team solves this problem.

We are fighting and will not give up! Please note that all USDT in Russian wallets is currently under threat. As always, we are the first but not the last. Garantex Team.”

According to one of Reuters’ sources, even if sanctions were lifted and the US dollar was available for Russia to trade with again, many would likely continue to use crypto because of the technology’s convenience and transaction speed.

 

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