Dapper Labs, the creator behind NBA Top Shot, recently halted payment services for Russian users following the European Union Sanctions announcement against the nation on Friday.
As the war between Ukraine and Russia worsens, Europe is tightening sanctions against Russia. The EU now announced that Russian residents cannot transfer funds internationally including crypto.
Even before the announcement, many crypto firms and NFT platforms already disabled services for users as part of US Sanctions. Now, Dapper Labs has disabled services for Russians.
“It is now prohibited to provide crypto-asset wallet, account or custody services of any value to accounts with connections to Russia,” the Dapper Labs team shared in an official press release.
The accounts will remain open and users can still view their NFTs but they won’t be able to trade or buy them from the marketplace anymore. No withdrawals or deposits can be made using Dapper Wallet as well.
This is quite bad news for Russian investors. On the other hand, many reports claim that the country has adopted crypto payment services to avoid sanctions.
As a result, America and Europe are pushing crypto firms, exchanges, and other decentralized platforms to prevent Russian users from using them. Those who don’t comply would face a ban.
Ukraine has been profiting from the crypto and NFT industry as it received thousands of dollars worth of digital assets as donations to fund its defense since the beginning of the war.
Dapper Labs is now cornering Russian users to the side following the EU sanctions and shared that they are actively monitoring the situation and will give updates to its users about it soon.