The European Union's 21st sanctions package against Russia broadens its crypto restrictions by imposing transaction bans on 14 foreign platforms, adding four designations tied to the A7 cross-border payments network, and creating a legal mechanism to prohibit dealings with crypto providers across an entire third country if that jurisdiction is judged to have systematically failed to stop sanctions evasion. The package was adopted on July 23 and covers platforms based in Georgia, Panama, the United Arab Emirates, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. No country has yet been placed under the new country-level ban, but the measure marks a significant expansion of the EU's secondary-sanctions toolkit by allowing regulators to pressure jurisdictions hosting platforms used by sanctioned Russian actors. Separate provisions will also tighten restrictions from Aug. 25 on Russian and Belarusian ownership, control and management of EU crypto firms by extending the rules across services covered by the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA. The package followed a June proposal and increased the number of directly targeted foreign crypto platforms from 11 to 14 at adoption. It arrives as the EU completes MiCA's transition period, leaving unauthorized crypto firms under heavier scrutiny at a time when TRM Labs data cited in an Aug. 11 analysis showed higher sanctions exposure among unapproved providers in the European Economic Area.