Gaming Giant Animoca Brands Reveals Ban Against Russian Users, Co-Founder Compares Russia to North Korea

Blockchain gaming firm Animoca Brands has revealed the company is breaking ties with Russian users following the Ukraine invasion that started seven days ago. Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu noted in an interview that the company received legal advice about the situation and the Animoca executive compared the newly sanctioned Russia to North Korea.

According to the Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands, the company is imposing restrictions on Russian users. Animoca Brands’ overarching ban follows a number of crypto firms like Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase saying the businesses will not blanket ban all Russian users.

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu spoke with Bloomberg in an interview and he explained that the company received legal advice about the newly sanctioned country. The co-founder noted that the restrictions could affect specific subsidiaries including the blockchain firm Lympo and Gamee. However, Yat Siu detailed that the company’s Russian user base was a low amount of users.

The Animoca Brands co-founder did not discuss the effect the restrictions on Russian users might have on the company’s most popular game The Sandbox. The company’s website, Twitter account, and subsidiaries have not issued any official statements about the Russian user restrictions. Speaking with Bloomberg, Yat Siu said that the company does not want to be “financially excluded” over associations with Russia.

“The legal advice we’ve been receiving is we now have to impose some restrictions,” Yat Siu explained to Bloomberg’s Olga Kharif. “It’s a sanctioned country on par with North Korea. The moment we end up doing business in those areas, we might ourselves become financially excluded from the financial system.”

While a number of crypto exchanges have stated that they would not ban all Russian users, there have been a few that have decided to add restrictions like Animoca Brands’ latest move. Kuna exchange delisted Russian ruble trading pairs last week and the fifth-largest ethereum mining operation, Flexpool, banned Russian users from mining with the pool. The Ukrainian-born startup Dmarket has also cut “all relationships with Russia and Belarus.”

You can support Ukrainian families, children, refugees, and displaced people by donating BTC, ETH, and BNB to Binance Charity’s Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund.

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