Russia has officially banned Ukrainian-founded cryptocurrency exchange WhiteBIT, stepping up efforts to crack down on companies it says support Ukraine’s war effort.
The country’s attorney general designated WhiteBIT and its parent company, W Group, as “undesirable organizations,” a legal label that criminalizes any activity involving the company in Russia.
Russian authorities accused the exchange of building “gray schemes” to channel funds out of the country and support the Ukrainian military through financial and technical infrastructure since the start of the war in February 2022.
WhiteBIT, founded in 2018 by Ukrainian businessman Volodymyr Nosov, said in a note shared with CoinDesk that the decision reinforces its commitment to supporting Ukraine.
The company said it left the Russian market in early 2022, shortly after the full-scale invasion of Russia began. It blocked all Russian and Belarusian users and removed ruble trading pairs, a move it claims cost it around 30% of its user base at the time.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, a year after the war, began sending official letters to major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance, Bybit, and WhiteBIT, to block Russian users.
At the time, some exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken, responded by saying they would not impose a blanket ban on Russian-linked addresses without being legally required to do so, but would instead block accounts or transactions involving sanctioned entities.
Despite the setback, WhiteBIT said it has grown eight-fold since then, now serving more than 8 million users and expanding into the US market.
According to Russian prosecutors, WhiteBIT allocated at least $11 million to the Ukrainian military, including almost $1 million for the procurement of drones. The company confirmed the figures and said its payment processing arm, Whitepay, has facilitated more than $160 million in donations for humanitarian and defense efforts.
“During the four years of large-scale war, WhiteBIT has donated around $11 million of its own funds to support the Ukrainian defense forces and humanitarian initiatives for civilians. These actions reflect the company’s values and civic position as a company with roots in Ukraine operating during times of war,” the company said.
Russia’s designation means that any Russian citizen who interacts with WhiteBIT could now face criminal charges.
