KoronaPay waves goodbye to Europe as the sanction wall finally hits
It seems KoronaPay Europe finally realized that playing hide-and-seek with regulators is a losing game. The Russian-linked transfer giant is packing its digital bags and handing back its license to the Central Bank of Cyprus.
The parent entity, Zolotaya Korona, has officially confirmed that its European branch, KoronaPay Europe, is voluntarily surrendering its operational license. Users hoping to send more funds are out of luck, as the platform has hit the brakes on all new transactions. Those who left money hanging in the ether are being directed to the Korona mobile app for recovery, a process that promises to be about as fun as a root canal without anesthesia.
This exit marks the end of a brief, four-year European adventure that began in mid-2020. At its peak, the service operated in over 50 countries, spanning the entire European Union plus the UK, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. It was a convenient bridge for cross-border movement until the European Union decided to drop the 21st package of sanctions on the Payment Center, the clearinghouse behind the system.
The writing on the wall appeared months ago when major corridors like Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia, and Azerbaijan suddenly vanished from the service map. Now, the network is effectively a skeleton crew, restricted to a handful of routes including Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and China. The grand vision of a seamless cross-border financial bridge has effectively been reduced to a narrow plank over a very deep, very cold canyon.
Source: KoronaPay
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