Coinbase Blocks 25,000 Crypto Wallets Linked to Russia Users

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase Global Inc. said it blocked over 25,000 wallet addresses related to Russian individuals or entities that it believes to be engaging in illicit activity.

The blocked addresses represent about 0.2% of Coinbase’s 11.4 million monthly transacting users, based on 2021 data. In a company blog, Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, said the largest U.S. crypto exchange has banned access for sanctioned individuals and is using blockchain analytics to identify addresses potentially linked to them, which it also adds to an internal blocklist.