US Department of the Treasury: Cryptocurrency market is too small to warrant special legislation for sanctioning Russia.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, cryptocurrency has become one of the chips in the economic sanctions possibility between Europe, the United States, and Russia. However, the US Treasury believes that sanctioning Russia does not require large-scale restrictions on cryptocurrencies because "in terms of illicit financial intermediaries, cryptocurrencies are not as significant as cash."

Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, cryptocurrencies have become one of the tools for economic sanctions between Europe, America, and Russia. However, the U.S. Treasury believes that imposing sanctions on Russia does not necessarily require extensive restrictions on cryptocurrencies because "in terms of illicit financial mediums, cryptocurrencies are not as significant as cash."

Nellie Liang, the U.S. Treasury's Deputy Undersecretary for Domestic Finance, discussed the potential of cryptocurrencies as a tool to evade Russian sanctions in an interview with Reuters.

Nellie Liang explained, "The scale of cryptocurrency transactions we see is quite small. Of course, we must acknowledge that we may not see everything, and there are still many gaps... At this point, we do not see it being used on a large scale to evade sanctions." According to him, the cryptocurrency market is currently not substantial enough to support an underground economy, making it difficult to effectively evade sanctions on a large scale.

Despite the U.S. Treasury's ongoing research on using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, Nellie Liang also mentioned that while the use of cryptocurrencies is increasing, "its proportion as an illicit financial medium is not as significant as one might imagine, not as significant as cash."

Even though Treasury officials have indicated that the possibility of evading sanctions through cryptocurrencies is minimal, some lawmakers remain skeptical of cryptocurrencies. Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced a bill to ensure that Putin and other Russian elites do not use digital assets to evade sanctions, while others question the bill as "unnecessary, overly broad, and unconstitutional."

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