Russian Agency Bans Biggest Crypto OTC Aggregator of the Country

The latest ban is imposed six months after the introduction of a new regulation on Bitcoin mining and crypto ads by Russia

After the enactment of this law, the biggest search engine in Russia, Yandex updated its ad policy in no time

Before this, BestChange was blocked in 2017 by a St. Petersburg court, alleging Bitcoin was a monetary surrogate and the irreversible transactions made enforcement tricky

A Russian Federal agency that monitors and controls Russian media, information technology, and telecommunications has hindered access to BestChange, a prominent crypto retail aggregator in Eastern Europe and Russia

Till now, the regulator has not given any reason for this step. However, the website is placed in the list of blocked platforms. A spokesperson for BestChange revealed that the lawyers of the platform are so far working on getting access back to the website.

Earlier bans on the aggregator

BestChange was introduced in 2007, and it is one of the oldest and biggest aggregators of crypto OTC platforms. Before this, it was blocked in 2017 by a St. Petersburg court, alleging Bitcoin was a monetary surrogate and the irreversible transactions on the blockchain made enforcement tricky

The ban was taken up in 2018 but in 2019, Roskomnadzor blocked it once again, just to eliminate the restriction a few months later. The latest ban is imposed six months after the introduction of a new regulation on Bitcoin mining and crypto ads by Russia

The new regulation banning crypto ads

As per the new regulation, ads are blocked for virtual assets and anything that aids move crypto around, consisting of services that let users transfer it using Russian infrastructure. After the enactment of this law, the biggest search engine in Russia, Yandex updated its ad policy in no time

It restricted promotions for crypto exchanges, smart contracts, mining, initial coin offerings, and services that keep an eye on money laundering. Outside the boundaries of Russia, Yandex will carry on to permit crypto ads, imposing some restrictions

Ads in these areas must abide by all local legal needs and ad policies of Yandex, limiting promises of swift gains, guarantees of successful deals, references to success stories, and alleging that crypto transactions are safe and risk-free

Certain ads such as ads for physical tools used in crypto mining and storage, educational articles, training materials, and events associated with crypto, mining, and ICOs were still permitted