Russia blocks crypto exchange OKX without disclosing reason Russia blocks crypto exchange OKX without disclosing reason
The authorities blacklisted Okx.com's IP address on October 4.
1 min read
Updated: Oct. 5, 2022 at 6:08 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Russia blocked global crypto exchange company OKX on Oct. 4 without disclosing why, according to News of Finance.
A local non-governmental organization named Roskomsvoboda discovered that the Prosecutor General’s office blacklisted okx.com’s IP address on Tuesday. The banning decision was made based on article 15.3 of the Federal Law on the Information, Information Technologies, and Protection of Information.
Reason for the ban
The Prosecutor General’s office didn’t disclose why and how OKX breached article 15.3 of the Federal Law. It is known that this law focuses on public calls for extremist activities.
Roskomsvoboda’s founder Artem Kozlyuk commented on the discovery and said that often times the companies that are blocked don’t know the reason. The only way to figure out why is to file a lawsuit against Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet censorship agency.
OKX
According to Coingecko, OKX’s daily trading volume is nearly $1.4 billion and it is the third largest crypto exchange platform by market cap. However, this didn’t prevent Russian authorities from banning the exchange.
Russia also banned Binance‘s website in June 2021, saying that the exchange was operating in a fully decentralized manner, which left no room for the government to regulate Binance’s actions, which was against Russian laws at the time. Binance answered with a lawsuit, saying that it didn’t receive any complaints from the regulators and got the ban lifted by the court in January.
OKX, on the other hand, didn’t comment on the recent ban. Considering Kozlyuk’s comments, chances are that OKX is unaware of the recent decision.
The exchange’s name came out recently in relation to the Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon case. On Sept. 28, South Korean authorities asked KuCoin and OKX to freeze 3,313 Bitcoins (BTC) because Kın had allegedly moved 3313 Bitcoins to these exchanges to sell.
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Author 
Zeynep Geylan
Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.
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In this article
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
OKX
OKX is a world-leading digital asset exchange, providing advanced financial services to global traders by using blockchain technology.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
Terraform Labs
Terraform Labs is a startup that created Terra, a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins.
Do Kwon began his professional journey as an engineer, contributing to tech giants Apple and Microsoft.