Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming, has revealed that it will put measures in place to restrict Russian users from accessing Animoca services. Animoca's decision to impose restrictions on Russian users comes right on the heels of other crypto firms like Binance imposing similar restrictions on Russian users following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Animoca Brands Co-founder, Yat Siu, explained that his company has received legal advice on the matter.
Yat Siu said:
“The legal advice we’ve been receiving is we now have to impose some restrictions…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.”
In addition, Yat Siu also noted that although the issue of sanctions has hit some blockchain firms like Gamee and Lympo hard, the impact of these restrictions will not be fatal to Animoca Brands since the number of Russians using it is quite low. However, Yat Siu did not address the impact on The Sandbox, the company’s most popular game.
Yat was quick to add that he does not want his company to be financially sanctioned over its business association with Russia.
Crypto firms response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Although several crypto exchanges claimed that they will not completely burn all Russian users, some had some like Kuna exchange were very quick to respond. Kuna already delisted the Russian Ruble from its trading pairs. The fifth-largest Ethereum mining operation, Flexpool, has also banned all Russian users completely from mining with the pool.
Dmarket, a Ukrainian startup, has also cut off all its relationships with Russia.
Animoca Brands Company has, however, not issued any official communication yet either on its Twitter account or the company’s website regarding how it specifically intends to restrict Russian users.
