According to a Financial Times report, the US Government has urged Japan to exert more pressure on cryptocurrency exchanges and miners that have links to Russia. The US authorities continued that the Japanese should work towards ensuring crypto companies operating within its territory sever all ties with Russia.
This is the US’ latest effort to ensure that the Russian economy is isolated from the rest of the world because of its invasion of Ukraine. According to the spokesperson for the State Department, the US Government will continue to take measures to ensure that sanctions against Russia are enforced.
According to sources, over 31 crypto exchanges having operating licenses in Japan are the target of the most recent call. However, the sources also pointed out that the US Government pinpointed the Irkutsk region in Siberia as a significant crypto mining zone where operations should be suspended.
In the meantime, in response to the US demand, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has promptly renewed calls for the country’s exchanges and miners to break all current relations with Russia.
However, at the time of this writing, neither the FSA nor the US embassy in Tokyo had made any public statements regarding the development.
The latest action by the US government also isn’t surprising given the speculations that Russia might be able to evade the sanctions using cryptocurrency. However, the crypto community has vehemently refuted that idea.