EU Targets $120 Billion Crypto Network in Aggressive Sanctions Package

The European Union has introduced its 21st sanctions package targeting Russia, which includes an outright ban on third-country crypto service providers to Russian persons. The move aims to block non-European crypto firms from offering services to Russian entities and identifies a $120 billion crypto network used for circumvention. This network is believed to be a sprawling structure of wallets, exchanges, and mixer services that funnel value across borders outside traditional banking channels.

The ban raises major compliance and AML risks for global CEXs, DEXs, DeFi protocols, and mixers. It also poses significant operational challenges for exchanges and custodians, who may face a binary choice: stop servicing Russian-linked users or lose access to the EU market. This could lead to market fragmentation and complicate tokenized asset settlement and institutional adoption.

The $120 billion figure represents the cumulative volume of crypto flows through this network, but details are scarce. The 14 targeted firms remain unnamed, leaving exchanges and custodians in a state of uncertainty. Enforcement becomes more complex when applied to decentralized protocols, which could test the limits of the EU's existing anti-money laundering framework.