Crypto Neobank Wallbit Leaves Venezuela Due to Sanctions – Wallbit, a cryptocurrency-enabled neobank that claimed to be able to open bank accounts for its users in the United States, has declared that it will discontinue providing service to consumers who live in Venezuela.
The platform released a press statement on February 24 to clarify that its banking partners were requesting that all accounts opened by Venezuelan users residing in Venezuela be closed. These users were urged to withdraw their funds as soon as possible, but Wallbit did not specify a deadline for doing so. The company made it clear that Venezuelan customers who were residing overseas may still use its services, but that they should get in touch with customer care in this case.
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Freelancers from Venezuela who utilize the site to collect their paychecks abroad and convert them to cryptocurrencies may be impacted by the situation. Wallbit stated that the U.S. government’s current sanctions against specific Venezuelan nationals and state-owned businesses in the nation are the primary cause of this abrupt decision.
In its press release, the company stated: “We would like to clarify that this account closure has its cause in the sanctions that the U.S. government has on Venezuela, so we have the duty of disabling the creation of new accounts, and disallowing new deposits coming from accounts created by users residing in Venezuela.”
Due to the possibility of being subject to sanctions, this is not the first financial platform to terminate connections with Venezuelan users. Due to the “increasing complexity of complying with U.S. sanctions,” Uphold, a cryptocurrency exchange and investment platform based in New York, said in June that it was likewise canceling the accounts of Venezuelan users.
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In a similar manner, P2P cryptocurrency exchange Paxful declared in 2020 that it will stop providing its services in the country. The major reasons for this move, according to the platform at the time, were concerns surrounding the regulatory landscape around Venezuela and Paxful’s own risk tolerance.
