Dapper Labs has become one of the first major cryptocurrency companies to restrict its services to Russians amid the latest package of sanctions imposed by the European Union against the country.
Dapper Labs Ban Russian From its Wallets
According to a recent blog post, Dapper has banned Russians from its Dapper Sports service and its digital wallet, Dapper Wallet. The users cannot make any purchases and sales from their account, nor can they gift any Moment across all Dapper Sports.
Also, Russians are banned from withdrawing from your Dapper Account and making Dapper balance purchases. However, the affected users are allowed view your nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on their accounts.
“Any accounts effected by these sanctions will remain open, and you will continue to be able to view your NFTs,” Dapper wrote.
Why is Dapper Labs Banning Russian Users?
The restrictive measures on Russian by Dapper Labs come amid the eighth package of sanctions on Russia announced by the European Union (EU) on October 6th. In this directive, the EU called for a total ban on crypto wallets and custody services to Russian nationals.
“The existing prohibitions on crypto assets have been tightened by banning all crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services, irrespective of the amount of the wallet (previously up to €10,000 was allowed),” the report reads.
Previously, the European Union banned high-value crypto services to Russians, limiting the maximum amount they can hold in their crypto accounts to €10,000. With Dapper Labs taking the lead, exchanges and wallet providers would be forced to prohibit Russian users to comply with the EU sanctions.
Meanwhile, Russia has been making advances to regulate and adopt cryptocurrencies for international trade. Recently, the Ministry of Finance stated that any industry within the country is permitted to trade and settle payments with cryptocurrencies without any restriction.
