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.
The named banks include Rosbank and Tinkoff, which are facing sanctions by Western countries amid the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. 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 also 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