Crypto Experts Say No Evidence of Major Russia Sanctions Dodging

Crypto doesn’t appear to be a successful tool for avoiding the sanctions that the U.S. and its European allies levied against Russian organizations and individuals including President Vladimir Putin following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a panel of cryptocurrency experts told lawmakers.

“We have not seen evidence of Russia or Putin systematically using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions,” Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis Inc., a blockchain-analytics firm that sells anti-money laundering services to the government, told the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.

Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis.

Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

U.S. lawmakers, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have raised concerns that Bitcoin, which can be ...