Russia has officially banned Ukraine-founded cryptocurrency exchange WhiteBIT, stepping up its efforts to crack down on companies it says support Ukraine’s war effort.
The country’s prosecutor general has 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 have accused the exchange of building “gray projects” 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 entrepreneur Volodymyr Nosov, said in a note shared with CoinDesk that the decision reinforces its commitment to supporting Ukraine.
The company said it exited the Russian market in early 2022, shortly after the start of the large-scale Russian invasion. It blocked all Russian and Belarusian users and removed ruble currency pairs, a move it said cost it around 30% of its user base at the time.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, a year after the start of 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 enforce a blanket ban on Russia-linked addresses without being legally required to do so, but would instead block accounts or transactions involving sanctioned entities.
Despite this setback, WhiteBIT said it has grown eightfold since then, now serving more than 8 million users and expanding into the US market.
According to Russian prosecutors, WhiteBIT paid at least $11 million to the Ukrainian military, including nearly $1 million for the purchase of drones. The company confirmed these figures and said its payment processing arm, Whitepay, had facilitated more than $160 million in donations supporting defense and humanitarian efforts.
“During four years of large-scale war, WhiteBIT donated approximately $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 stance as a company with roots in Ukraine and operating in times of war,” the company said.
Russia’s designation means that any Russian citizen who interacts with WhiteBIT could now face criminal charges.
