Binance Narrows P2P Services in Russia, Drops Sanctioned Banks

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, stopped offering its Russian clients the option to pay through five sanctioned banks on its peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto trading platform, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Binance Drops Five Sanctioned Russian Banks

The named banks include Rosbank and Tinkoff, which are facing sanctions by Western countries amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian banks were also kicked out of SWIFT, which made it nearly impossible for ordinary Russians to take their money out of the country.

Binance’s P2P is one of the few platforms that allowed Russians to transfer funds in rubles. Another recent report by the Wall Street Journal pointed out that the crypto platform is helping Russians to transfer their money abroad, circumventing the heavily sanctioned banking system.

“We regularly update our systems to ensure compliance with local and global regulatory standards,” a Binance spokesperson told media platforms. “When gaps are pointed out to us, we seek to address and remediate them as soon as possible. In line with our ongoing commitments, payment methods on the Binance P2P platform that do not fit with our compliance policies are not available on our platform.”

Binance is facing harsh scrutiny from regulators globally on its activities. The exchange is already facing lawsuits in the United States, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), putting several serious allegations on the exchange and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao.

Are Crypto Exchanges Offering Services Secretly in Russia?

Meanwhile, Binance is not the only exchange offering services to Russians through sanctioned banks. ByBit and OKX, two other big names among crypto exchanges, allowed Russians to purchase cryptocurrencies using the cards issued by the sanctioned banks on their P2P platforms. Similar to Binance, both terminated the offering of services with sanctioned Russian banks, especially with Tinkoff Bank or Sberbank accounts without any official notifications. However, OKX reportedly is still allowing users to receive fiat in their accounts with Raiffeisen Bank and the Russian Standard Bank, which are not on the sanctions list of the United States Treasury.

Binance ensured last year that it stopped working in Russia amid Western sanctions. However, multiple media reports confirmed that the exchange quietly resumed services in the country despite the sanctions.

“Binance aims to diligently comply with the global sanctions rules and enforces sanctions on people, organizations, entities, and countries that have been blacklisted by the international community, denying such actors access to the Binance platform,” the Binance spokesperson added, assuring that the exchange is taking all the necessary measures to fill the gaps that allow Russians to circumvent the sanctioned financial system.