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Treasury Department Issues Guidance on Using Crypto to Evade Sanctions
The Biden administration said earlier in the day that such guidance would be forthcoming.
By Nelson Wang
Updated May 11, 2023, 6:14 p.m. Published Mar 11, 2022, 11:18 p.m.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued guidance on Friday spelling out how cryptocurrency should not be used to circumvent economic sanctions imposed against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
- In a FAQ on whether Russia-related sanctions extend to virtual currency, the department wrote that “U.S. persons, including virtual currency exchanges, virtual wallet hosts, and other service providers, such as those that provide nested services for foreign exchanges, are generally prohibited from engaging in or facilitating prohibited transactions, including virtual currency transactions in which blocked persons have an interest.”
- The FAQ said that U.S. persons are also barred from engaging in or facilitating prohibited transactions by a non-U.S. person, “including virtual currency transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.”
- U.S. financial institutions are also generally prohibited from processing transactions, including virtual currency transactions, involving targeted financial institutions.
- The Biden administration and G7 group of nations said earlier on Friday that such guidance on crypto transactions with respect to sanctions would be forthcoming.
- The new guidance comes shortly after after U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced she was drafting a bill to prevent Russian oligarchs or President Vladimir Putin from using crypto to evade sanctions.
Read more: Justice Department Will Prosecute Banks, Crypto Exchanges That Help Russians Hide Assets: Report
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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