Cryptocurrency exchanges are limiting features accessible for Russians on their platforms. This is due to the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation by the United States and Europe. The most sensational event of this week for Russian citizens was the support of sanctions from Binance: restrictions for Russian nationals and the rumor of the exchange’s withdrawal from the Russian space stirred up the community. Following Binance, OKX and ByBit exchanges also decided to support restrictions for Russian citizens.
Binance has decided not to take any risks
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance may be considering withdrawing its services from Russia amid sanctions from countries including the United States.
According to an August 28 report by The Wall Street Journal, a Binance spokesperson said the exchange is considering all options regarding Russia, “including a complete withdrawal.” The report followed Binance removing some sanctioned Russian financial institutions from available payment options on its peer-to-peer platform and adding restrictions on fiat currencies for Russian nationals.
Russians noticed the first restriction on August 26, when Binance left only the ruble in P2P trading. Everyone who went through the KYC procedure lost access to other currencies. Several people have already confirmed that only ruble transactions are available to them on exchanges.
Interestingly, in April this year Binance canceled its restriction on storing amounts larger than 10000 euros on the wallets of Russian nationals. This measure had been introduced a year ago – also due to sanctions. Deposits from Russian bank cards were also allowed.
When the U.S. Department of Justice began investigating violations of sanctions against Russia, exchanges quickly reversed their position and began to introduce their own restrictions.
OKX, too, did its part
On August 28, Sber, Alfa Bank and Tinkoff cards were banned on the exchange. It was these three banks that fell under the toughest US sanctions. All foreign assets are frozen, and American individuals and entities are not allowed to interact with these banks in any way. Consequently, US crypto exchanges cannot allow transactions with the disgraced financial structures either.
A day after the first restriction, the platform banned transactions with the Russian ruble altogether.
“Users in Russia are still able to trade in other currencies. We understand that this may affect your trading preferences and apologize for any inconvenience,” the statement said.
ByBit stepped in
On August 25, the first reports of restrictions for Russian citizens appeared. Access from Tinkoff and Sber was banned – users are no longer able to make payments through these banks. While the list of available banks has remained unchanged, operations on these two are not exercised.
Although the head office of the exchange is located in the United Arab Emirates, it still decided to play safe.
These are not the only exchanges that prevent the participation of Russian citizens in trading. On August 30, it became known that all sanctioned Russian banks were also removed from the KuCoin exchange. However, it is still possible to pay with rubles, albeit through other banks and payment systems.
Sergey Ramaninov, an analyst of the Telegram channel “Markets Money Power”, explains that the ban on currency transactions will hit Russian nationals harder. For many, this is the only opportunity to exchange rubles for foreign currency. Ramaninov believes that all the above-mentioned exchanges are afraid of excessive attention on the part of the Western authorities, so they have taken measures. Still, there are many platforms in the world that do not operate in Europe or the United States and do not depend on their regulators, he says. He cites Huobi, based in China, and MEXC, a global exchange registered in the Seychelles, as examples.
