Japan Hits Russian Crypto Exchange Garantex With New Sanctions

Japan has taken another step to pressure Russia over its ongoing war in Ukraine — this time by targeting a cryptocurrency exchange and dozens of other entities.

What happened? The Japanese government added Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange (a platform where people buy and sell digital money like Bitcoin), to its growing list of sanctions. Sanctions are official penalties that block financial dealings with certain companies or people.

Three Japanese ministries — Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Economy, Trade and Industry — announced the move together. The new measures include:

• 33 organizations and 9 individuals linked to Russia added to an "asset-freeze" list (meaning their money and property can't be moved or accessed)
• 35 ships from Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" — vessels that secretly carry Russian oil to dodge existing penalties
• Restrictions on services like repairs and insurance for those ships

Why target Garantex? The exchange has already been punished by the United States, the European Union, and others for helping Russian businesses get around financial restrictions. By cutting off these channels, Japan hopes to reduce how much money Russia earns from selling its crude oil.

Will it actually work? Maybe not. According to TRM Labs, a company that tracks blockchain activity (the digital record-keeping system behind cryptocurrencies), Garantex appears to have prepared a backup plan long before the penalties hit. This allowed it to quickly move its customers, technology, and funds to a new platform called Grinex.

The U.S. Treasury later sanctioned both Garantex and Grinex a second time, but TRM Labs warns that groups like these often stay one step ahead by setting up successor platforms before enforcement arrives.

The bottom line: Japan is joining Western nations in tightening the financial squeeze on Russia. But crypto's ability to move quickly and quietly means these exchanges may keep finding ways to survive — making sanctions a constant game of cat-and-mouse.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://cointelegraph.com/news/japan-adds-garantex-to-list-of-russia-sanctions-over-ukraine-war?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound