Kraken Under Fire for Alleged Iran Sanctions Violations, Kraken Allows Iranian Users to Access
Categories: Crypto News US
Kraken Under Fire for Alleged Iran Sanctions Violations, Kraken Allows Iranian Users to Access
As the NYT reports, the Treasury has outlined its suspicions that Kraken allows Iranian users to access its services, thereby violating US federal sanctions. It is alleged that five people connected with the company or having knowledge of the inquiries came forward to share the information with the newspaper.
These sources requested anonymity for their own safety, but discussed how Kraken allegedly allows customers from Iran and other sanctioned countries to use its exchange despite the illegalities. Kraken's chief legal officer Marco Santori said his company would not comment on regulatory discussions except to say so.
However, it is known that the CEO and co-founder of Kraken, Jesse Powell, has expressed his willingness to challenge “unfair rules” in the past. International sanctions are one such rule. While there is no current timeline for enforcement action, it is understood Kraken will receive a fine.
Opensea and economic restrictions
Debate about crypto operations in various countries has begun this year, with major NFT marketplace OpenC at the center of the controversy. On March 5, both OpenSea and MetaMask users in Iran and Venezuela were blocked from conducting Ethereum transactions. Both platforms cited compliance issues as the reason behind the blockade; However, it was confirmed shortly thereafter that Ethereum's Infura hacked users in separatist regions in Ukraine, and that users in Venezuela were accidentally hacked.
However, the block was intentional for Iranian users. Three days later, on March 8, OpenSea updated its list of banned countries to align with the US sanctions list, with Iran blocking North Korea, Syria and Russia. The decision re-started talks on decentralization and sparked outrage from NFT collectors.