Hemant Singh – Mumbai Uncensored, 5th March 2022
Representatives of OpenSea stated:
“OpenSea block users and territories on the US sanctions list from using our services, including buying, selling, or transferring NFTs on Opensea… If we find individuals to be in violation of our sanctions policy, we take swift action to ban the associated accounts.”
Iranian-based users have been irritated, with some resorting to Twitter to express their displeasure:
“NOT a gm AT ALL
Woke up to my OpenSea trading account being deactivated/deleted without notice or any explanation, hearing lots of similar reports from other Iranian artists and collectors…
Is OS straight up purging its users based on their country now?”
It appears that considerable debate of sanctions on Russia has led to the increased inspection of penalties aimed at other countries.
This is most likely a result of Elizabeth Warren’s inquiries addressed at Jerome Powel. l:
“Obviously you do not administer sanctions, but you are an expert on the international financial system. Are other countries currently using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions? I’m thinking here of North Korea, Iran, Venezuela”. Reported guy.eth in his telegram insider
Users on Twitter are concerned about their accounts being terminated without warning.
OpenSea users with Iranian IP addresses claimed their accounts were suspended on Thursday, as part of a bigger conversation regarding foreign sanctions and prominent Web 3 platforms.
Various users came to Twitter with screenshots indicating that their account record had been wiped, and users who administer verified collections stated that their collections had been purged.
“OpenSea blocks users and territories on the U.S. sanctions list from using our services, including buying, selling, or transferring NFTs on OpenSea,” Representatives of OpenSea stated, “If we find individuals to be in violation of our sanctions policy, we take swift action to ban the associated accounts.”
The sanctions in question are directed at the Iranian government and prohibit US corporations from providing products or services to any consumer situated in Iran. Located in New York, OpenSea is a Delaware-based company.
The US sanctions in question are Policymakers have taken a fresh interest in cryptocurrency companies’ compliance with sanctions in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. During a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on whether cryptocurrency may be used to undermine sanctions.
“Chair Powell, obviously you do not administer sanctions, but you are an expert on the international financial system. Are other countries currently using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions? I’m thinking here of North Korea, Iran, Venezuela,” she stated.
Powell replied, “read that those things happen.”
This isn’t the first time the crypto sector has encountered a legal dark area – in November, Ethereum software developer ConsenSys suddenly denied a group of Iranian students from their coding college, citing similar constraints.
