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It is the first time a cryptocurrency mining company has been punished because of the war.

The Treasury Department's sanctions arm has put a commercial bank called Transkapitalbank on a list of things it can't do. The bank has operations in China and the Middle East.

 

It's a commercial bank in Russia that the US says has helped sanctioned clients make dollar payments by giving them an alternative way to communicate with SWIFT, the main system for global financial transactions.

There were also people and businesses led by Konstantin Malofeyev, the founder of an Orthodox news channel in Russia called Tsargrad TV.

Mr. Malofeyev was also put on the sanctions list in December 2014. The Treasury said that he was one of the main sources of money for Russians who wanted to separate from Ukraine in Crimea.

In the first time, the US government took action against a cryptocurrency mining company because of the war.

There were sanctions against a company called Bitriver AG and 10 of its subsidiaries on Wednesday from the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The latest Russian sanctions include a crypto-miner on the list of individuals to be sanctioned
In a first, the US government issued penalties against a cryptocurrency mining firm in relation to the war.

"The United States wants to make sure that no asset, no matter how complicated, is used by the Putin regime to make up for sanctions," Treasury said in a statement.

A lot of people have said that Russia might be using cryptocurrency to avoid the pain caused by a lot of sanctions in the last few months because of the invasion. This is a concern for both lawmakers and people in charge of the government.

Experts say that using more cryptocurrency would be a natural way for Russia to try to keep up with its financial transactions. Treasury officials have said that cryptocurrency is not a big way for Russia to get around sanctions.

More penalties against cryptocurrency miners and businesses could come, says the CEO of Inca Digital, a crypto data company that works for several federal agencies. Oligarchs and people who have been sanctioned are finding ways to get their money out of the country to avoid sanctions.

It may not be as bad as the US thinks, he said, because even though Bitriver was sanctioned by the US government, "it doesn't actually stop Bitriver from doing business; it can no longer interact with the US financial system."

After the sanctions were made public, Janet Yellen made a statement that said: "Russia's invasion is an attack on fundamental international rules and norms, and it threatens the core of the international order."

"The United States stands resolutely with the government of Ukraine and the people of Ukraine," says the US

When the joint International Monetary and Financial Committee and Development Committee met, this statement was made. The statement was made in connection with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

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