One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Poloniex denied its services to the residents of Crimea — a territory currently under dispute between Russia and Ukraine, Forklog reports.
The exchange’s support team confirmed that Crimea residents are no longer able to use Poloniex in a response to a query:
Then the user is suggested to undergo a verification and prove that he resides not in Crimea in case he believes the exchange identified him wrongly.
In order to pass the verification a user is requested to provide the service with a photocopy of his or her passport, a phone number, and a verified place of residence.
It is important to note that the limitations cover trading but not withdrawal of funds.
Poloniex updated its terms of use in August, 2017, and according to paragraph one the exchange started to support sanctions against Russia by the termination of services to the Russian citizens.
The Poloniex customers from Russia were suggested to withdraw their funds.
The U.S. and the E.U. imposed sanctions against Russia in 2014 due to annexation of Crimea. The sanctions imply that products, investments, tourism-related services, and technologies for transport, telecom, power industry as well as oil and gas industry are not to be imported to Crimea.