Polygon has just launched a new self-sovereign, zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) identity service. Called Polygon ID, the solution will enable users to verify their credentials and identity without ever revealing any personal information.

The solution aims to front-run the know-your-customer (KYC) regulation that will put incredible pressure on cryptocurrency companies around the globe.

A decentralized solution for KYC

Privacy and anonymity are the cornerstone of Web3 culture, representing everything its users hold dear. However, the huge growth seen in the Web3 market, driven by DeFi and NFT industries, has made it a target for regulators.

Market watchdogs around the globe have been racing to regulate the burgeoning industry and gain some semblance of control over its fast-growing market. This push for regulation translates into more stringent KYC requirements for companies operating in the Web3 sphere.

For crypto service providers, KYC means requiring their users to provide personally-identifying information such as passports, government-issued IDs, and biometric data. And while this relieves the pressure from regulators, it presents a slew of other problems, which include infringement of privacy and data leak risks.

This rising concern is what Polygon set out to address with its new ID solution. Polygon ID is one of the first such solutions to be powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography and represents the first milestone in Polygon’s ambitious roadmap for 2022.

The scalable blockchain platform has made zero-knowledge cryptography the centerpiece of its strategic vision for the next couple of years and has committed $1 billion to fund projects exploring and implementing the technology. Polygon ID, the company told CryptoSlate, is the latest product in this rapidly growing portfolio.

The ID solution will leverage the Iden3 protocol and the Circom ZK toolkit to provide a decentralized and self-sovereign platform for organizations, businesses, and users. It can be used to construct a variety of identity and trust services, including dAccess-as-a-Service, KYC and KYB attestation, as well as distribution channels.

For end-users, Polygon ID offers a decentralized way to KYC by enabling them to create a digital identity that can confirm their access rights without divulging their personal information. Polygon told CryptoSlate that this is a major step forward over traditional forms of digital identification as it removes all redundancy and middlemen from the process.

“Polygon ID is private by default, offers on-chain verification and permissionless attestation. There is nothing in the digital identity space now that ticks all these boxes,” said Mihailo Bjelic, Polygon’s co-founder. “It is also a great showcase for how zero knowledge proofs can help us create a better world.”

It also allows for the construction of new forms of reputation, opening up new possibilities for companies in the Web3 space. According to Polygon, its new ID solution can be used to provide decentralized credit scores for financial primitives and social payments in DeFi and enable a decentralized Sybil score that could create new decision-making and governance models in DAOs. Polygon ID could also be used to create player reputation profiles for Web3 games and facilitate private P2P communication and interactions on social applications.

Polygon’s convenient privacy set that’s set to be delivered this year

Based on the expressible claim standard, Polygon ID offers advantages over other forms of digital verification such as NFTs and verifiable credentials (VCs).

While NFTs have become ubiquitous in the Web3 world, they lack the privacy and cost-efficiency needed to make them an effective verification solution. Verifiable credentials, on the other hand, offer a higher degree of privacy as they enable selective disclosure and can support ZK cryptography. However, they’re limited when it comes to expressibility and composability—all features required when implement...

The dawn of the metaverse raises new questions about user protection and data-driven advertising. This new world is hinging on immersive technology that could allow companies to collect new kinds of personal information and even biometric data.

In a worst-case scenario, Web3 and the metaverse could be just as bad for user data security as are the Web2-based business models most of us love to hate, maybe even worse. How do we as an industry avoid falling into the old trap of surveillance capitalism?

Web3 technology itself holds the key to answering these questions and mitigating the risk. There are different definitions of what Web3 actually is; one key definition is that data should reside on the user or client-side, not on the server-side. The latter is the prevalent model of today and the main reason why the user is not in control of her data.

Web3, on the other hand, is the exact opposite – the user is in control of the data through everyone’s wallets. But being in control also means handing out data when or where needed, and a key technology enabling the control of personal data is so-called decentralized identifiers or DIDs.

DIDs are designed to decouple from centralized registries

DIDs have already been standardized through W3C and some blockchain projects are working on implementing the standard to be used by ordinary blockchain, Web3, and metaverse users.

According to the DID standards documentation, DIDs are

“a new type of identifier that enables verifiable, decentralized digital identity. A DID refer to any subject (e.g., a person, organization, thing, data model, abstract entity, etc.) as determined by the controller of the DID. In contrast to typical, federated identifiers, DIDs have been designed so that they may be decoupled from centralized registries, identity providers, and certificate authorities. Specifically, while other parties might be used to help enable the discovery of information related to a DID, the design enables the controller of a DID to prove control over it without requiring permission from any other party.”

One of the blockchain projects deeply involved in developing and implementing DIDs is Ontology. Ontology is a public blockchain project that helps other projects to put reputation and decentralized identity in front and center; things like data management, data sourcing, integrating data from different feeds and locations, and with a focus on cross-chain collaboration as well.

The metaverse changes the way audiences engage

To help us understand the risks, and how to minimize those risks of surveillance capitalism in Web3, CryptoSlate talked to Erick Pinos, America’s Ecosystem Lead at Ontology. Erick is also President of the Blockchain Education Network (BEN), a seven-year-old global network of blockchain clubs, students, professors, and alumni.

According to Pinos, what sets Ontology apart is the tools and the infrastructure to manage digital identities, and manage data – storing data and keeping it privacy-preserving for the user – that Ontology develops and provides to others.

“I think the metaverse is going to change the way audiences are engaged because up to this point it’s been very straightforward – here is the product and the service you can chose to interact with or not – but now with the metaverse, especially when we get more into things like VR and experiments with AR, now we’re interacting with these services in a 3D space, as opposed to just see it on our screen,” Pinos says.

This is going to change the relationship between the consumer and the product or service, because the consumer can feel it’s a tangible thing that’s right there in front of her, especially for VR. Even today, people are able to spend some time in these virtual worlds and just hang out. That has already changed the way that people interact with others and with these services.

Collecting data in a 3D space

Services in a metaverse virtual world can collect user data by seeing user behavior, instead of just ...

A new study has shown that android and iPhone users are at risk of their crypto being stolen through a “sophisticated malicious cryptocurrency scheme.”

The cyber security company, ESET, discovered that malicious apps mimicking Coinbase and MetaMask have been growing in circulation.

ESET revealed that these hackers now use fake websites with ads placed on legitimate sites to distribute the malicious apps. They’re also using telegram and Facebook for the purpose.

Users of MetaMask and Coinbase wallet in China are the primary target, but it’s only a matter of time before it spreads to other climes. According to Lukáš Štefanko, the ESET researcher who uncovered the scheme, it’s important for people to be careful about which mobile app they use for managing their funds.

With prices of digital assets mostly below their ATHs, some would expect hackers to be less interested in digital assets. But this hasn’t stopped them from exploiting panic withdrawals in the face of the market slump.

These apps pose a further threat as some of them use unsecured HTTP connections to send the victim’s secret phrase to the attacker’s servers. This makes it possible for those behind the scheme and any other hacker eavesdropping on conversations to easily steal victim funds.

The research echoes earlier warnings from regulators about the risk of cryptocurrency. Earlier this month, the European Union’s securities, banking, and insurance watchdogs warned that crypto investors could lose all their money. They added that crypto investors should be aware of the risks of investing in the space.

MetaMask releases new iOS integrations

In another development, MetaMask, the popular Ethereum wallet, has rolled out a new payment gateway for its mobile app. According to available information, iPhone users would now be able to use Apple Pay to buy crypto using their credit or debit card connected to their wallet.

📣 MetaMask Mobile v4.3.1 is LIVE with some exciting updates:

Buy crypto on iOS with Apple Pay (@sendwyre), more transparency when interacting with sites, & support for gasless transactions where relevant.

Does it get any better? Yes it does! We now have dark mode! 🌑

1/🧵

MetaMask 🦊💙 (@MetaMask) March 28, 2022

Before now, MetaMask depended on Transak and Wyre for its card transactions. However, this new update would now allow users to use their cards stored in Apple Pay to buy ETH and deposit as much as $400 daily into their wallets.

This means that there would be little to no need for users to first transfer their Ethereum holdings from a centralized exchange to the MetaMask Wallet.

The ConsenSys-owned Ethereum tool announced this v4.3.1 update that comes with features like the dark mode, an aesthetic feature that most apps have been adding recently. And a better protection feature that protects users when they are sending tokens and interacting with contracts.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released a notice in 2019, condemning all crypto businesses to comply with their AML/CFT rules by 9 January 2021 and acquire their licenses.

However, by December 2020, this deadline was still far from being met. Therefore, the FCA established a Temporary Registration Regime (TRR) so that crypto-asset firms who have already applied to obtain their licenses can continue trading. They also extended the final deadline for compliance to 1 April 2022.

Since the announcement, many from the FCA’s list of unregistered cryptoasset businesses have shut down. While some did not pay any attention to the regulatory call, some applied and got rejected. Many firms who tried have publicly voiced their distress with FCA’s extreme measurements and withdrew their applications. A CEO of a crypto firm who opted to relocate said:

“We decided some time ago to say ‘screw them”

In the end, only 33 firms were able to finalize their registrations among hundreds.

As the extended deadline approached and the pressure from the lawmakers increased, the FCA announced another extension on the TRR on Wednesday, three days before the deadline.

Details of the extension

This extension was only applied to 12 firms (including Revolut, Copper, and blockchain.com’s crypto wallet) that were obtaining their licenses. As a result, only these firms will be able to continue trading crypto assets as unregistered entities. The rest of the unlisted crypto companies are still expected to stop their business activities by 1 April.

The FCA showed the slowness of the licensing process as the justification for their second extension. An FCA spokesperson said:

“The temporary register closes on Friday, for all but for a small number of firms where it is strictly necessary to continue to have temporary registration. For example, this is necessary where a firm may pursue an appeal or have particular winding-down circumstances.”

Why are lawmakers angry?

This extension may have prevented certain crypto businesses from retreating from the UK, but lawmakers said it was unnecessary as it includes only a small number of companies.

Many Members of the Parliament voiced their frustration with the extension soon after it was announced. The lawmakers were mainly furious that the FCA couldn’t keep up with their already extended deadline due to their insufficient internal procedures.

Chair of the Treasury select committee, MP Mel Stride, said:

“It is disappointing to hear that the FCA hasn’t fully met its already-extended deadline, which the committee strongly encouraged it to meet. I look forward to receiving a full explanation for the delay.”

Supporting Stride, Chair of the UK Parliamentary Group on Crypto and Digital Assets, Lisa Cameron said:

“The lack of clarity from the FCA has presented huge challenges to firms in terms of business certainty. We are now hearing of firms actively leaving the UK due to the FCA’s approach, which will cost the UK in terms of jobs, talent, and revenue.”

Crypto regulation is the hot topic of 2022. The fear of a global cryptocurrency ban seems to have almost wholly subsided as adoption takes us past the point of no return. Banning crypto now is practically impossible. Yet, the lack of an upcoming blanket crypto ban does not mean that there will be no changes.

Most, if not all, crypto projects either fall outside current regulatory frameworks or are subjected to incompatible policies meant for existing financial assets such as traditional securities.

Is regulation even possible?

Unlike fiat investments, there are no protections for individuals investing in crypto. For example, if a bank goes bust in the U.K. and you lose your money, the FSCS will pay you £85,000 per firm. In the U.S., the FDIC the standard deposit insurance is $250,000 per depositor, per bank. The European equivalent, EDIS, pays up to €100 000. Given today’s world of social engineering, it seems sensible that we should accept some regulations to allow governments to issue protection for investors.

However, there is a real question about whether we need such help from governments. Perhaps it should be up to the crypto community to create these systems?

Projects such as Nexus Mutual offer cover for contract bugs, economic attacks, including oracle failures and governance attacks for around 2.6% per year. Do we need traditional solutions for disruptive technologies? Further, is it even possible for governments to create fundamental, impactful regulations for crypto? It seems like smart contracts are born for this, and a cross-chain global crypto DAO would be my preference over traditional governments where most politicians don’t even understand what blockchain means. I’d like to see a cross-chain DAO, somehow secured by a trustless voting system, issued to the world’s validators of the top crypto projects.

I have no idea how this would work in a way that wasn’t susceptible to exploitation, but there must be a possible world where we can achieve this. In this world, the crypto community could vote through the blockchain to ensure safe practices and deposit insurance.

If one chain got hacked, the DAO could payout from its cross-chain treasury to repay investors. Perhaps it’s a dumb idea. Message me on Twitter if you think it is, and tell me why. I’d love to explore the alternatives to government regulation with you.

Regulation & globalization

It is unlikely that the crypto community will be able, or allowed, to regulate itself any time soon. Therefore the need for some form of government regulation is inevitable. When new technologies are allowed to grow exponentially without formal regulation, we can have potentially socially devastating consequences. However, this is not just a new technology; this is a unique global monetary system.

Whoever controls the regulation potentially controls the future financial system as a whole. Credit Suisse claims that we are witnessing the birth of a “new world monetary order.” They posit that a digital renminbi will be much stronger in the coming months due to the current world economic crisis.

Crypto is not going away, and it shows the potential to replace the current system. This creates a new battleground. Controlling crypto regulation may be the only way centralized governments can retain their grip on the global economy. Globalization has three facets, economic, political, and cultural. I doubt that few would advocate for there to be only one culture and one political system for the entire planet. Why then are we settled on a single economic system?

Economic globalization has made trade more accessible, services more efficient, and outsourcing more practical. However, the agendas of the U.S., E.U., and China control most of the system. Crypto will allow all the benefits of economic globalization without centralized control. No one likes losing control, especially not global superpowers.

The U.S. as a leader of crypto regulation

In Biden’s recent executive order, the U.S. ha...

Tezos (XTZ) is up 28 percent in the past three days, well-outperforming Bitcoin which has increased by 11 percent in the same period. Three major factors are behind the strong momentum of the cryptocurrency.

Three factors that are pushing the price of Tezos are thriving ecosystem supported by large grants for projects, stable asset portfolio of the Tezos Foundation, and an optimistic medium-term technical structure of XTZ.

The Tezos ecosystem is thriving with grants

Since August 2019, within merely seven months, the foundation has given out 78 grants in total to new projects.

In its Q2 2020 report, Tezos Foundation president Ryan Jesperson said that the ecosystem is rapidly growing and the interest of projects to build on top of the blockchain network is widely increasing.

Jesperson said:

“The rapid growth of the ecosystem is clearly evident with rising interest to build on Tezos from those both inside and outside of the Tezos community. In September 2019, the Tezos Foundation announced its second cohort of Tezos ecosystem grants with 14 projects approved out of 38 applications. More recently, we were thrilled to announce the third cohort of ecosystem grants, with 21 new projects receiving grants out of 90 applications.”

As a governance protocol that operates as a foundation of blockchain applications and platforms, it is one of the few protocols that would largely benefit from having a large number of developers working on the infrastructure of its blockchain network.

Projects that received grants from the Tezos Foundation in the likes of BUIDL Labs and Blockmatics will teach new developers to code smart contracts on top of the blockchain.

Over the long-term, the grants will lead to a consistent expansion of the blockchain’s developer community, increasing productivity on the network.

Strong financials of the foundation

The official Q2 report states that as of January 31, 2020, the Tezos Foundation had $635 million in assets.

In 2017, the blockchain project raised around $232 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum in a token sale. The current portfolio of assets that the foundation has is 173 percent higher than the capital it raised during its token sale around three years ago.

A financially healthy foundation is critical in maintaining a fast growth rate of a blockchain ecosystem and encouraging more projects and developers to expand the network.

XTZ Cryptocurrency is still in a price discovery mode

The term “price discovery” is used in trading when an asset sees a new record high. When an asset breaks past its all-time high, it seeks for the next ceiling and it typically overextends to the upside.

Tezos reached its record high at $3.9 on February 19, rising by 200 percent in a single month from $1.28.

The cryptocurrency achieving a record high merely two months ago and its price rapidly recovering in a v-shape rebound since March 12 — when the Bitcoin price fell to $3,600 as the global stock market crashed — indicates a highly positive medium-term technical trend for XTZ.

Through the implementation of metaverses, crypto projects can revolutionize how people interact with one another. Not only that, these virtual worlds open up pathways for digital asset ownership and in-game monetization, which has the potential to transform many industries.

To help deepen your understanding of this flourishing area, this article will discuss the best metaverse crypto projects for 2022, highlighting their features and value potential for the months and years ahead.

The 5 Best Metaverse Crypto Projects for 2022

Presented below are five of the most exciting metaverse crypto projects with the greatest potential in 2022. We’ll explore each of these projects individually in the following section, touching on why they are deemed to have such high-value propositions.

Silks – Best Metaverse Crypto Project for 2022

Decentraland – 3D Metaverse World with Monetization Possibilities

Enjin – User-Friendly Metaverse Platform for Creating NFTs

The Sandbox – Exciting Metaverse Project with Incredible Customization

Bloktopia – Skyscraper-Based Metaverse Project with VR Capability

A Closer Look at the Most Exciting Metaverse Projects

The projects listed above have incredible transformative potential – especially within the growing area of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming. Let’s dig a little deeper into each of these projects, covering the intricacies that make them so exciting.

1. Silks – Best Metaverse Crypto Project for 2022

Silks is an upcoming metaverse project that looks to build on previous P2E games’ success – and take things one step further. Put simply, Silks is a blockchain-enabled P2E game that will offer a feature-packed metaverse based on the thoroughbred horse racing industry.

Within this metaverse, players can purchase Silks avatars and own Silks horses, which are derivative digital representations of real-world thoroughbred horses and are structured as NFTs. This enables Silks to offer a self-sustaining marketplace in which players can trade Silks horses and benefit from value increases.

The exciting thing to note about these Silks horses is that the link to real-world horses is achieved through the use of extensive datasets containing information on the thoroughbred horse’s bloodlines, development history, and racing results.

Although these datasets will be centralized at first, they will become entirely decentralized over time as Silks expands and their user base grows. The data used to create this link between Silks horses and the real world is verified via a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which rewards miners in $SLK – Silks’ governance token.

The 1-to-1 link between Silks horses and their real-world counterpart forms the basis of the metaverse’s P2E elements. As noted in the Silks whitepaper, Silks horse owners will earn rewards when their real-world counterpart wins a race, while owners can also earn rewards through an innovative staking mechanism. These rewards will be denominated in $STT – Silks’ non-inflationary transactional token.

Silks players can also earn ‘breeding rewards’ when their Silks horse’s real-world counterpart is retired and becomes a broodmare or a stallion. Since a new crop of Silks horses will be minted each year to coincide with yearling (one-year-old thoroughbred horses) auctions, any offspring from the retired horse which are sold on the market will see the owner of the parent Silks horse receive rewards in the form of $STT.

Finally, due to the vast swathes of real-world data employed by the Silks metaverse, this also provides scope for Silks players to monetize their expertise through ‘pinhooking’. This refers to the buying and selling of Silks horses before they have run their first race in the real world. Silks players with in-depth knowledge of the thoroughbred racing industry can profit from the volatility of an unraced horse’s value – providing another exciting avenue to generate income.

VISIT SILKS

2. Decentraland – 3D Metaverse World with Monetization Possibilities

An...

Socios.com, a blockchain company that specializes in so-called “fan token” cryptocurrencies, has signed a three-year agreement with legendary soccer player Lionel Messi who will now become the firm’s global brand ambassador, according to a press release shared with CryptoSlate.

“We are welcoming to our family someone who, as sports fans, has inspired and brought joy to each and everyone [sic] of us, regardless of our nationality and the teams we support,” Paco Roche, a senior PR manager at Socios.com, told CryptoSlate in an email. “A man who has redefined what can be done with a ball and is unanimously considered part of football’s legacy.”

Good morning.

Yes, it really happened.

Socios.com (@socios) March 30, 2022

Per the announcement, Socios and Messi plan “to build a more inclusive, exciting and rewarding future for fans across the world.” Meanwhile, their first collaborative promo campaign will run under a “Be more” slogan.

While the company did not officially reveal any sums of money involved, a source close to the deal recently told Reuters that the agreement is ostensibly worth more than $20 million. Notably, the payments reportedly won’t involve any cryptocurrencies.

“Since I played my first professional game the passion of the fans has been a driving force that has helped inspire me to be my very best. Fans deserve to be recognised for their support. They deserve opportunities to influence the teams they love,” Messi said in the announcement. “Socios.com exists to enhance the fan experience, to enable fans to ‘be more.’”

So far, more than 130 various sports organizations have teamed up with Socios, including Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Napoli, Valencia, Atlético de Madrid, Manchester City, Arsenal, UEFA, and many others.

While the popularity of fan tokens and the number of organizations issuing them are constantly growing, these digital currencies regularly face criticism from regulators. For example, the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority banned two of Arsenal FC’s token ads for “for taking advantage of consumers’ inexperience in cryptoassets” last December.

In June 2021, the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission also ordered crypto exchanges to delist all fan tokens as well as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and NFTs, alleging that such assets had “no clear substance” or “underlying value.”

As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, cryptocurrencies are taking on an important role in the conflict, but not in the capacity of evading sanctions on Russian entities or oligarchs. On the contrary, crypto has proven itself to be very useful in supporting Ukraine as users around the world have donated over $56 million in cryptocurrency to addresses provided by the Ukrainian government alone.

This is “showcasing not just the crypto community’s generosity but also virtual assets’ unique utility for cross-border payments,” Chainalysis report on the matter reads.

As most readers know, the United States and many of its allies in the EU and elsewhere have taken unprecedented actions against Russia, including adding Russian oligarchs, their family members, and their businesses, as well as all major state-owned banks and many energy exporters, to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN).

Western powers have also removed select Russian banks from the SWIFT system, essentially cutting them off from the global financial system, and sanctioned Russia’s central bank, preventing it from using its $650 billion in reserves to mitigate the impact of the sanctions.

There’s no evidence sanctions evasion is happening

Many are now wondering how Russia’s business and political elites could use cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH), to evade sanctions. “While there’s no direct evidence this is happening, It’s a reasonable concern as Russia accounts for a disproportionate share of several categories of cryptocurrency-based crime, and is home to many cryptocurrency services that have been implicated in money laundering activity,” the report reads.

As Chainalysis co-founder Jonathan Levin explained while testifying before the U.S. Senate, if cryptocurrency-based sanctions evasion is happening, it would probably look more like typical money laundering activity, in which relatively small amounts of cryptocurrency are moved gradually to disparate cashout points, rather than all at once in huge transactions.

Chainalysis’ report goes on to list the different ways sanctions could be evaded and dismisses all of them.

First, if Russian crypto whales – wallets with more than $1 million worth of crypto – would try to move these funds, it would show. Between the start of the invasion and the 21st of March, Chainalysis tracked just over $62 million worth of cryptocurrency sent from Russia-based whales to other addresses, many of which are associated with OTC desks and exchanges, some of them high-risk.

“While spikes in this activity are common, Russian whale sending hit its highest levels in roughly eight months during the week of February 28 soon after the invasion, reaching $26.5 million. On-chain activity alone can’t tell us if these transfers constitute sanctions evasion, as we don’t know if the whale wallets are controlled by sanctioned individuals and entities,” the report reads.

Sbercoin to zero

Chainalysis also looked into the newly created cryptocurrency issued by Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank, which was put on the sanctions list at the beginning of the war. The Sbercoin, as it is named, had previously been announced in late 2020.

According to CoinMarketCap, Sbercoin has seen roughly $4.5 million in total transaction volume, all on one popular decentralized exchange. Sbercoin’s price has dropped over 90% since its launch and currently sits at $0.00003329 as of March 28, 2022, with a market cap of $113,089. Sbercoin is thus obviously not used for sanctions evasion.

Chainalysis also looked at other cryptocurrency services and usage typologies that could indicate sanctions evasion by Russian entities, but so far, on-chain indicators for these don’t show much out of the ordinary.

Russia has a large ecosystem of services, and it’s reasonable to expect that sanctioned Russian entities may try to use these services to evade sanctions by moving their wealth through them.

No exc...

Anyone who seeks to help Russia bypass economic sanctions will be held accountable by the US government, says Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo.

This follows the punitive measures that the US and its allies have imposed on Russia for its decision to invade Ukraine.

Treasury Department warns anyone against helping Russia bypass sanctions

Since the conflict started on February 24, it has led to a massive humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe, with millions of people displaced and thousands dead. The heavy sanctions imposed against Russia have also left its economy tottering as the country becomes more isolated.

Speaking on the CNBC program Street Signs Europe, Adeyemo stated that there’s no evidence that Russia has been able to evade the sanctions. But he added that the US is aware that they’re trying to do this and will use every means possible to avoid the sanctions.

Adeyemo specifically mentioned opaque shell companies and cryptocurrencies as ways Russia could evade the sanctions.

He said, “What we want to make very clear to crypto exchanges, to financial institutions, to individuals, to anyone who may be in a position to help Russia take advantage and evade our sanctions: We will hold you accountable.”

Reiterating what appears to be a veiled threat against anyone seeking to help Russia, he added that the US will ensure that

“Russia does not have the ability to get around the sanctions that we have put in place in order to make it harder for them to prosecute the illegitimate war that they have in Ukraine.”

His specific mention of crypto doesn’t come as a surprise, given world powers’ emphasis on digital assets in recent weeks.

The G-7 major economies, including the US, UK, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy, recently pledged to make it impossible for Russia and its allies to use digital assets to evade sanctions.

Russia can’t use crypto to evade sanctions

Stakeholders within the cryptocurrency industry have explained that a country like Russia can’t rely on crypto to evade economic sanctions.

According to a new report from CryptoSlate, the Vladimir Putin-led Administration is unable to use crypto to evade sanctions.

But that’s not convincing enough for authorities who believe the anonymity of crypto makes it the perfect tool to evade sanctions.

While concerted efforts make it impossible for Russia to use crypto, Ukraine has been leveraging cryptocurrency to finance its defence. Since the conflict started, the country has received over $65 million in crypto donations.