3 weeks ago
WhiteBIT has actively supported Ukraine's warfare effort, donating $11 cardinal to subject initiatives and processing implicit $160 cardinal successful donations.
Jan 26, 2026, 5:22 p.m.
Russia has officially banned Ukrainian-founded cryptocurrency speech WhiteBIT, escalating efforts to ace down connected firms it says are supporting Ukraine’s warfare effort.
The country’s authoritative wide designated WhiteBIT and its genitor company, W Group, arsenic “undesirable organizations,” a ineligible statement that criminalizes immoderate enactment involving the steadfast successful Russia.
Russian authorities accused the speech of gathering “gray schemes” to transmission funds retired of the state and supporting the Ukrainian subject done fiscal and method infrastructure since the commencement of the warfare successful February 2022.
WhiteBIT, founded successful 2018 by Ukrainian entrepreneur Volodymyr Nosov, said successful a enactment shared with CoinDesk that the determination reinforces its committedness to supporting Ukraine.
The institution said it near the Russian marketplace successful aboriginal 2022, soon aft Russia’s full-scale penetration began. It blocked each Russian and Belarusian users and removed ruble trading pairs, a determination that it says outgo it astir 30% of its idiosyncratic basal astatine the time.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, 1 twelvemonth into the war, started sending authoritative letters to large cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance, Bybit and WhitEBIT to artifact Russian users.
At the time, immoderate exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken, responded, saying they wouldn’t beryllium enforcing a broad prohibition connected Russian-linked addresses without being legally required to bash so, but would alternatively artifact accounts oregon transactions involving sanctioned entities.
Despite the setback, WhiteBIT said it has grown eightfold since then, present serving implicit 8 cardinal users and expanding into the U.S. market.
According to Russian prosecutors, WhiteBIT directed astatine slightest $11 cardinal to Ukraine’s military, including astir $1 cardinal for drone procurement. The institution confirmed the figures and said its payments processing arm, Whitepay, has facilitated implicit $160 cardinal successful donations to defence and humanitarian efforts.
“Over the 4 years of full-scale war, WhiteBIT has donated astir 11 cardinal USD of its ain funds to enactment Ukraine’s defence forces and humanitarian initiatives for civilians. These actions bespeak the company’s values and civic presumption arsenic a concern with roots successful Ukraine operating during wartime,” the institution said.
Russia’s designation means immoderate Russian national who interacts with WhiteBIT could present look transgression charges.
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