Sanctions in the Virtual Asset Industry: SIFMANet Roundtable Report

In February 2025, the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI hosted a roundtable discussion with 32 participants from the public and private sectors, including blockchain analytics companies and virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The conversation focused on the challenges associated with the implementation of sanctions for the virtual asset industry, especially the methods used by governments to target entities and individuals exploiting virtual assets for sanctions evasion.

The discussion identified operational and regulatory gaps that persist and undermine the effectiveness of sanctions in the virtual asset industry. These points include the need for governments to define the objective of a sanctions designation, provide clarity for VASP market participants on sanction packages, and understand the tools that may further support the process of tracking and confiscating virtual assets tied to sanctions evasion. Furthermore, the public and private sectors need to develop a system where governments can feed back information to VASPs on infrastructure changes of sanctioned entities and individuals after the initial sanctions designation, to maintain the effectiveness of the original designations.

This conference report provides a summary of the key points from the roundtable discussion.