Binance cancels ruble and exits Russia to strengthen compliance efforts.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it will stop supporting the Russian ruble (RUB) trading pair on its platform starting in January, effective January 31, 2023. The decision is part of Binance’s strategy to exit Russia after selling its local unit to CommEX.
Earlier this year, Binance sold its Russian exchange to local entity CommEX (OFAC) after coming under scrutiny from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for allegedly facilitating transactions with sanctioned Russian entities following its attack on Ukraine. .
“Following the decision to exit Russia and sell to CommEx, Binance P2P will no longer support the Russian Ruble (RUB) trading pair,” Binance said in a notice today.
Despite the sale, Binance continues to support ruble trading on its peer-to-peer (P2P) platform. The exchange will end support for the ruble entirely in an effort to strengthen compliance efforts more broadly.
Users can still trade rubles on CommEX for free using their Binance accounts. Prior to the deadline, Binance allowed users to withdraw rubles through fiat partners, convert them to cryptocurrencies, or trade them on the Binance spot market.
The removal of the ruble marks Binance’s latest move to scale back Russia-related services as sanctions intensify. Regulators around the world are putting more pressure on leading centralized cryptocurrency exchanges to tighten anti-money laundering controls and reduce sanctions evasion.
The move comes after Binance recently faced regulatory challenges. In November 2023, Binance reached a settlement with OFAC and was fined $3.4 billion for apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs. The settlement agreement includes important remedial measures, such as changes to compliance policies and procedures, requiring all users to pass KYC, and regular customer reviews. #币安 #俄罗斯