Crypto exchange Binance has dropped Russian banks under sanctions from the payment options on its peer-to-peer (P2P) platform. Russian traders can no longer use cards issued by these banks to make payments while transactions in foreign fiat currencies are also restricted for them.
Binance No Longer Offers P2P Traders Option to Pay Through Sanctioned Russian Banks
The world’s largest digital asset exchange, Binance, has dropped Russian banks placed under Western sanctions from its P2P service, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes after the crypto giant faced criticism for facilitating payments through such institutions.
A few days ago, Russian crypto media revealed that Binance has renamed bank cards issued by Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, and the neobank Tinkoff to “green local card” and “yellow local card” after the publishing of an earlier WSJ article alleging that the exchange is helping Russians move money abroad in circumvention of sanctions.
Unprecedented restrictions have been imposed on Russia’s finances since last year over Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. In May, Bloomberg unveiled that Binance is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for allowing Russian clients to make transactions involving at least five sanctioned Russian banks.
According to the Russian crypto news outlet Bits.media, Binance users from Russia still have 15 payment methods at their disposal to convert rubles into cryptocurrencies, including Raiffeisenbank, Russian Standard Bank as well as the Payeer and Advcash payment systems.
The Russian-language crypto news portal Forklog noted that Russian residents are not allowed to use any fiat currencies other than the ruble. When they try to buy or sell foreign fiat, they are prompted to “Choose your local currency for P2P trading.”
“This is required in accordance with the Binance rules for the country you specified during verification,” the message further reads. Access to P2P transactions in U.S. dollars and euros on were restricted for Russians in compliance with the 10th package of EU sanctions on their country.
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