Animoca Brands has stopped working with Russia: "It is under sanctions on a par with North Korea"
Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands will no longer serve users from Russia against the background of the situation in Ukraine. The company specializing in blockchain games and NFT has stated that it does not want to be isolated from the global financial system.In an interview with Bloomberg, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu said that the company decided to introduce restrictions after communicating with lawyers.
“Russia is under sanctions on a par with North Korea,” the Hong Kong businessman said. He also stressed that the share of Russian users in the company’s business is small, and therefore such a decision should not affect the financial results.
The
restrictions also apply to Animoca Brands divisions. The gaming platform Gamee has already announced the termination of service to users from Russia, and Lympo has announced that it will stop producing NFT with Russian athletes.Animoca Brands is one of the leaders of the blockchain technology market. She has also invested in more than 150 companies, including Sky Mavis, the developer of the NFT game Axie Infinity. Now its market value is estimated at $2.2 billion.
Despite the decision of Animoca Brands, so far not all blockchain companies and operators support blocking Russian users. Some of them believe that such restrictions “contradict the libertarian spirit of the industry.”
