The European Union votes to exclude seven Russian banks from SWIFT, the messaging network underlying global financial transactions.
- The bloc stated that, starting 12 March, 2022, it will prohibit the provision of specialised financial messaging services, used to exchange financial data, to the identified banks.
- The seven banks are VTB, VEB, Otkritie FC, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank and Sovcombank.
- The European Commission is also assessing the degree on which crypto is being used to evade sanctions imposed on Russia since the start of its invasion of Ukraine.
- The trading volume between the ruble and Bitcoin jumped to a nine-month high on Monday after a collapse of the Russian currency.
- Clara Medalie, an analyst for crypto research provider Kaiko stated that much of the trading activity was concentrated on Binance.
Binance has rejected calls to freeze accounts of all Russian users, noting it does not wish to punish innocent people.
RUB USD up +0.90%, BTC USD up +1.73%
Source: CoinDesk
