According to The Wall Street Journal, Binance has continued to process up to $8 billion in transactions for at least 5 sanctioned Russian banks, including Tinkoff Bank and Rosbank. Some volunteers known as Binance Angels reported on Telegram that the exchange does not have any restrictions on Russian customers.
However, Binance spokesperson immediately denied: “Binance follows 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.”
Last April, Binance announced that it closed a series of accounts linked to Russian authorities. The exchange also restricted its services to users with Russian nationality, and individuals and organizations residing or registered in the country, who hold crypto assets worth more than 10,000 euros. At that time, Reuters also accused Binance of providing user information to Russian authorities.
Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, crypto trading volume of Russian customers has spiked, as many look to alternative investment channels to protect their assets amid the ruble’s devaluation. serious. BTC and USDT prices in trading pairs with the Russian ruble even hit ATH.
The Justice Department is also said to be opening an investigation into Binance for possible violations of the US sanctions on Russia, according to insiders reported by Bloomberg. This is not the first time Binance has been accused of violating US sanctions. In July 2022, there was a lot of evidence accusing the exchange of allowing users in Iran to trade in contravention of U.S. sanctions.
Binance has continuously encountered difficulties in Europe, leading to its withdrawal from the German, UK, Netherlands, Cyprus and Austrian markets. As a result, BNB once dropped to $204, hitting a 1-year low. It is now trading around $215 on CoinMarketCap.
