There were allegations that the website of the cryptocurrency exchange OKX had information on pyramid schemes, but no specifics were provided. Bans of this nature have already been implemented.
On October 4, the Russian government’s official media monitoring service Roskomnadzor banned the website of the cryptocurrency exchange OKX. According to the agency, the website was banned “at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office for the distribution of unreliable socially relevant information of a financial nature.”
Roskomnadzor informed local news source RBC that OKX “released information related to the activities of financial pyramids, as well as information on the provision of financial services by persons who are not authorised to give them.” Despite being blocked in Russia, a VPN can still easily access the website.
In response to a different report, the administrators of the OKX Russian-language Discord channel allegedly stated, “We do not advise using a VPN when browsing OKX as this would trigger our risk controls and can result in a ban of your account.”
The Seychelles-based OKX, which was established in China and does not adhere to Western sanctions against Russia. Known for its sponsorships of Manchester City soccer and auto racing, it reportedly recently ignored a request from South Korean authorities to freeze accounts linked to Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon.
Prior instances of similar website blocking have been effectively challenged in Russian courts. During September 2020 and January 2021, Binance was banned in Russia until a regional court overturned Roskomnadzor’s judgement.
Six cryptocurrency news websites were restricted by Russia in 2020, but one of them, Bits.media, was able to get the restrictions lifted a week later by a district court ruling, even though it was still listed on the agency’s blacklist.