Petukhovskyi Ivan Ivanovych

Romanian passport, Kyiv startup, and an exchange that cannot part with Russia

Co-founder and owner of EXMO — once the largest crypto exchange in Eastern Europe, launched in Kyiv in 2014 together with Eduard Bark. A figure more of the crypto world than of politics. After 2022, EXMO loudly "split": the global EXMO.com announced that it cut off clients from Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, while the Russian branch (EXMO.me) was sold. Journalists immediately doubted whether this was merely a "paper exit."

The Russian part of EXMO came under sanctions from three jurisdictions simultaneously

In 2025–2026, the operator EXMO.me ("EKSMO RBK," Kazakhstan) was added to the NSDC lists—for operating in the Russian market and involvement in sanction evasion—and later the UK and the EU (EXMO Exchange Limited) sanctioned it as a network link through which Russia was channeling funds for the war. Separately, back in 2021, in a money laundering case involving the Hydra darknet market via the Suex exchanger, the name Petukhovskyi surfaced—but that was his namesake Yegor, and EXMO denies any connection. Namesakes, sanctions, and the "divorce" from Russia that still remains incomplete.