(Get involved ! Open post for discussion and add your thoughts too) 

On Sunday a request was put forth by the Ukrainian government for several exchanges to block Russian users from their respective crypto-exchanges. "The ministry is reaching out to Coinbase, Binance, Huobi, KuCoin, Bybit, Gate.io and Whitebit, along with Ukrainian exchange Kuna" (Yahoo finance, 1/3/22). I will use Binance as a case example for discussion.

Mykhailo Fedorov's request given the ongoing crisis is a reasonable one in attempting to cut Russia off further from the financial global structure. Ukraine is right now under immense pressure as the Russians advance on Kyiv and any avenue that can be sought by the Ukrainian government will be done to bolster its success in deterring the Russian invasion. Whilst I can sympathise  this request, I can also see Binance's standpoint as possibly justified.

Binance has said it will try to manage "specific individuals" which one would assume are those larger crypto holders that have already been targeted by Euro and U.S. sanctions already. However, even on this point, there are ways and means around buying and selling crypto by these "specific individuals" by shill accounts and so on.

The second paragraph is where I find myself agreeing and I hold no ill will towards the Russian people in general as many of them do not support Putin and his ambitions and indeed many have openly protested in Russia and been imprisoned for it too. Thus why should these people be persecuted too? "Crypto is meant to provide greater financial freedom for people across the globe" and I wholeheartedly agree with that. @Rexmatic posted an article today expanding on this and a link is in the comments of this post; please read his post and especially his comments too.

🍀So, in my opinion, it's a quandary: Agree with Mykhailo Fedorov and accept that in times of war there are innocent casualties yet that's the price of war to end war, or accept Binance's stance and allow Crypto to be the mechanism of financial freedom as it should be. It's a tough one and what do you think?🍀

However, and I'm not accusing Binance as this being their prime motivator in response given, but it is also worth considering. Business is business and the Russian market is a big one for Binance and surely they wouldn't want to lose that market. Nonetheless, Binance is one of many exchanges also funding Ukrainian efforts too and should be noted.

Finally, with the recent SWIFT imposed sanctions coming into place, the reaction of Bitcoin in the last few hours has been a favourable one and could be argued that this is the driving force behind the rally.

Bitcoin has taken off and crypto volume is indeed up today in Russia. One could say many in Russia are now scrambling into crypto as the Ruble collapses and that SWIFT sanctions are abound; you have to put your money somewhere and crypto is maybe now on that journey as a hedge and indeed a "safe-haven" . It could also become a "war-proof" asset as I discussed in a post yesterday and now is the test of that. This is the first potential war that Bitcoin is in given its short history. I have seen many comparisons of crisis in war times and "safe-haven/war-proof" narratives offered, but it must be remembered this is the first test for crypto and the answers are not fully here yet. On an end note, let's hope all out war doesn't arrive and then the test for crypto doesn't come into question.

A final thought from a Banter poster today. (Link in comments).

Perfectly said by @cristinel and go give him a thumbs up or even buy his post👍👍👍

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Yes, I know it's a long post, but it's getting political in our crypto world too. Please engage and discuss this in the comments below, I'd love to hear your opinions. You have my opinions and it doesn't mean I'm right. Feel free to add yours, don't be shy, we are all here to learn.

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Cheers, CryptoGlyn.