Binance is refusing to block Russian customer's crypto wallets.

[Kakmakr]

They do not want to "block" Russian customers wallets, but they are quick to block Nigerian wallets... right? See this article and see if this is fair or not? ==> https://techcabal.com/2022/01/31/30-scam-70-kyc-why-binance-blocked-over-200-nigerian-accounts/

They know that the Russians are pushing through a lot of trading fees at this moment, so Binance are making money like crazy now.. so it is not a question on morals or principle.... but rather about profits. 

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[EdenHazard]

They do not want to "block" Russian customers wallets, but they are quick to block Nigerian wallets... right? See this article and see if this is fair or not? ==> https://techcabal.com/2022/01/31/30-scam-70-kyc-why-binance-blocked-over-200-nigerian-accounts/

They know that the Russians are pushing through a lot of trading fees at this moment, so Binance are making money like crazy now.. so it is not a question on morals or principle.... but rather about profits. 

Dude  , that is just different context.

I find Binance's choice right, but looking at the other side of the coin, what could be done to stop these madmen? In addition to sanctions, one can only deal with an agreement or a world war, but binance like so many others have economic interests, such as Switzerland for example which is adopting cryptocurrencies, I see several shifts of money in the direction of crypto, Russian citizens who have no faults in somehow they gotta die? I don't think so, war causes harm to everyone without distinction

Yupp .. they did it in style.

After they decided to donating $10 million to help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine , there is another great gesture here by letting russian using their platform , of course there is no political interest here .. both sides helped by binance while they could also get a lot of traffic and new user incoming with the economic crisis getting hit russia. Well done binance.

[Bttzed03]

They do not want to "block" Russian customers wallets, but they are quick to block Nigerian wallets... right? See this article and see if this is fair or not? ==> https://techcabal.com/2022/01/31/30-scam-70-kyc-why-binance-blocked-over-200-nigerian-accounts/

It's not the same case.

On one hand, Binance is being asked to block all Russian customers because of the ongoing conflict. That's it, no other valid reason provided. On the other hand, the Nigeria case is more of a legal issue.

They know that the Russians are pushing through a lot of trading fees at this moment, so Binance are making money like crazy now.. so it is not a question on morals or principle.... but rather about profits. 

If case you didn't know, P2P transactions in Nigeria since the central bank ban actually grew. Knowing Binance is a business, they will take advantage of that and they won't just ban any user on a whim.

[Luqman]

I think that it doesn't matter f Binance not blocking the wallet of Russian users. It is fair because they are the provider and also users, no worry if they come from Russia r not as long as the country is not restricted. And if Binance blocks the user from Russia, maybe they will lose some percentages of the income activities.
I am also wondering that not all people of Russia and also Ukraine also support the war, aren't they? I feel so silly for them that they are both victims of the certain politics or interests from the government. We really hope that the war will end soon and will not  infleunce biger war again

[coolcoinz]

I feel like they shouldn't block them simply because Bitcoin is above any conflicts. It should remain apolitical and everybody (which includes the murderer Putin) should have access to it. That said if centralized exchanges like Binance are banning people for breach of TOS, they can as well add Russians to their TOS and ban them. In the end it's their platform and if they are restricting people's access anyway, which means they don't feel like Bitcoin is for everybody, they could show their support of Ukraine. They are not doing it because of principles. It's about the money.

[livingfree]

IMO, I believe that Binance doing is right because those Russian crypto users are not part or involved in the invasion and I also believe that they don't want the war only Putin wants it, and because of this many innocent people in Russia has suffering now with the mistake committed by Putin those sanctions are designed to make people suffer by destabilizing their economy to force its leader to do something but Putin has not done it so far. to be exact both Binance and Coinbase are also declining the Ukraine request.  

Binance has that neutral thinking.

CZ understands it together with his team that the most affected if they'll put sanctions just like the other industries to Russia, are the innocent people there.

They know that there could be government supporters that would take money to go through crypto but the majority are just innocent citizens that want an end to this battle.

[Anonylz]

Not long ago Binance froze accounts of Colombian citizens by order issued from Holland, regardless of the situation it was a selective freeze... it is unthinkable that all Russians have to pay for a few...but the worst thing is that these few who should be punished with a ban on their accounts benefit from that selective decision in this case. (So they prefer not to block any of them the Russian oligarchs get in)

Ah! so why if Binance freezes selective accounts like the case mentioned, because he doesn't do it now.

Binance already made it clear only selective accounts targeted by the sanctions and fully affected by the sanction will be blocked, it is unethical to ban all Russian accounts as the government has requested, they have to follow due process and ban only those that fall in the category.
Binance made a public statement to address this, there is no need for confusion.

[KaliLinux]

They do not want to "block" Russian customers wallets, but they are quick to block Nigerian wallets... right? See this article and see if this is fair or not? ==> https://techcabal.com/2022/01/31/30-scam-70-kyc-why-binance-blocked-over-200-nigerian-accounts/

They know that the Russians are pushing through a lot of trading fees at this moment, so Binance are making money like crazy now.. so it is not a question on morals or principle.... but rather about profits. 

I believe you must have read this article yourself and seen the difference between the Nigerian blocked accounts and what the situation is with the Russian traders. If you are using Binance and know you have to complete KYC yet didn't and still want to get those services then I think that is justified plus a law enforcement request. Even though I am not in support of the Russian Government's move on Ukrain, traders from Russia shouldn't be the ones receiving all the hits from all these sanctions cos we know they will feel it the most so it's a thoughtful move by Binance. 

[stompix]

March 5th

"We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise," Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said in a series of tweets on Friday.

March 7th:
https://blog.coinbase.com/using-crypto-tech-to-promote-sanctions-compliance-8a17b1dabd68

Today, Coinbase blocks over 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals or entities we believe to be engaging in illicit activity, many of which we have identified through our own proactive investigations. Once we identified these addresses, we shared them with the government to further support sanctions enforcement.

Let's see the moment the US puts pressure on Visa and some banks to cut ties with Binance and Kraken, how long it will take those two to forget what they have promised a few days ago?

[acener]

I like what Binance did and for me it was the right thing,
They don't have to ban all of their Russian customer's because there are also innocent people out there and they could use crypto to save some of their wealth.

[m2017]

March 5th

"We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise," Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said in a series of tweets on Friday.

March 7th:
https://blog.coinbase.com/using-crypto-tech-to-promote-sanctions-compliance-8a17b1dabd68

Today, Coinbase blocks over 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals or entities we believe to be engaging in illicit activity, many of which we have identified through our own proactive investigations. Once we identified these addresses, we shared them with the government to further support sanctions enforcement.

Let's see the moment the US puts pressure on Visa and some banks to cut ties with Binance and Kraken, how long it will take those two to forget what they have promised a few days ago?

March 8th:
https://twitter.com/binance/status/1501166638531760129
and here for more details https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/675e9bb985ec43d8a63d8a9f26dac7c4
Not so long Binance was able to keep his promise.

At the end of the announcement on the Binance offsite, you can see this (quote):
"Binance reserves the right in its sole discretion to amend or change or cancel this announcement at any time and for any reasons without prior notice."

Did they leave a loophole for themselves?

[PrivacyG]

I think it shows that Binance is committed to provide good service to it’s customers despite political pressure or government dealings. I expect this will rub some the wrong way and they will stop using the service, but personally I would be more concerned if I was a customer and they were just freezing assets of their customers for any reason they’re told. This is why DeFi is so important and I hope the Bitcoin community gets access to some good DeFi options someday soon, because it is clear that the exchanges will be the point of failure for Bitcoin going forward.

I disagree but I may be corrected if I am wrong.  Binance enforces Know Your Customer now.  If they truly cared about providing good service to customers despite political pressure or government dealings, it would have ran without Know Your Customer even today.  And I do not think they wanted this policy implemented, particularly with Binance sitting a few months ago on the top of non Know Your Customer centralized Exchanges.  It was an advantage of theirs.

With enough political pressure, they know their entire business can be screwed so at the end of the day they have to accept whatever they are told to do.  Sad, but stompix is right.  It is all about how much pressure the United States government wants to put on you before you give up neutrality.

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Regards,
PrivacyG

[fzkto]

As of today, Binance stops supporting visa and mc cards issued in Russia. Thus they have joined the world sanctions and users from Russia cannot directly deposit the Russian Ruble on the exchange. Needless to say, Binance can join other sanctions at any time? I believe they can block an account at any time.

[Woodie]

Binance has really gone through alot in terms of regulations and if am not mistaken the company was hit hard from the European countries which i find amusing now because these are the most likely to be putting pressure on them to put temporary sactions on Russia and based on probability they could actually have a good number of customers coming from this part of the world... and as a business they wouldn't want to go down this route because it will hurt them financially .

[Mpamaegbu]

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/28/binance-will-not-block-russian-accounts-after-ukraine-request.html

what is your take on this?

That's the most sensible thing to do. Why block accounts of innocent traders in Russia when it knows they aren't Putin or a part of Putin's cabinet. To be sincere with you, I think those who want accounts belonging to Russian traders banned aren't thinking it through. Such a thought isn't coming from a place of objectiveness. For crying out loud, those traders are also passing through a hard time occasioned by the war in their country. Come to think of it, Biden and his cohorts are yet to boycott Russian oil and gas. Why haven't they stopped buying oil from Russia yet? Sincerely, this war has become an eye opener for me on the double standard played by the US in global politics.

[Luzin]

I support this Idea, most Russians do not support Putin with this war even some of his soldiers. so why should they be victim? Binance has always been the last place for such ban. They didnt delist or ban XRP which is in court till date so how will binance lead such campaign against the citizens of Russia. Russian are also victim of the war, Putin should be criticized instead.

I think like that. Russia is a country with a fairly large number of miners. In addition, they are a country with a large number of Binance members. Blocking is too complicated and it goes against the principle of decentralized Bitcoin that cannot be controlled (other than money). In fact, it seems that Bitcoin transactions with rubles have increased since last month. I am happy with Binance's neutral decision, it is good news for Bitcoin and crypto users around the world.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

Just a comment on the Coinbase block of 25000 addresses related to Russians related to illicit activity. The text also goes on to say that:

(Note: this figure isn’t specific to the time period since the invasion of Ukraine, most of these addresses we identified prior to the invasion, and we have not seen a surge in sanctions evasion activity in the post-invasion context). Once we identified these addresses, we shared them with the government to further support sanctions enforcement.

The intake I make is that they regularly block addresses (they mention (interaction with certain) addresses, not the accounts that TX with these addresses, but probably part of the same package) as per their explanation, but it’s not specifically something related to the sanctions as yet; more like historical data brought upfront to show their proactiveness or such.

Having said that, I would not be surprised, if this goes on, to see it happening in major Exchanges at some point, just as some South Korean Exchanges have done, blocking access from Russian IPs.

[wxa7115]

It's not only Binance, any exchange shouldn't block a user's account anyway. The fault isn't of Citizens, Binance would block government officers' accounts if they really want to do something. Any exchange would exclude a country if they want, but for that fund wouldn't be seized anyway. And excluding a country is harmful to the exchange, not for the users. There are a lot of cryptocurrency users and traders in Russia and a handsome revenue has been coming from there. So taking a strict decision means the exchange will lose the revenue from there. I don't think exchanges owners are soo stupid anyway. Rather than exchange owners could stand for Ukraine Citizens to help them like Binance.

Exactly, if one of the associates of the Russian president had an account with them then I think they could block their account especially if they were asked to do so by a powerful entity, like the US government, but blocking Russian citizens just because of the place they were born, something in which they had no control at all, is simply wrong.

So I agree with decision of Binance of not doing anything like this, however lets see for how long they can maintain this posture as it would not be weird if they changed their stance if the pressure on them to do something like this keeps growing.

[Oilacris]

I support this Idea, most Russians do not support Putin with this war even some of his soldiers. so why should they be victim? Binance has always been the last place for such ban. They didnt delist or ban XRP which is in court till date so how will binance lead such campaign against the citizens of Russia. Russian are also victim of the war, Putin should be criticized instead.

I think like that. Russia is a country with a fairly large number of miners. In addition, they are a country with a large number of Binance members. Blocking is too complicated and it goes against the principle of decentralized Bitcoin that cannot be controlled (other than money). In fact, it seems that Bitcoin transactions with rubles have increased since last month. I am happy with Binance's neutral decision, it is good news for Bitcoin and crypto users around the world.

Having that neutral decision does really shows that they wouldnt really be bias out and how people should be dealing with decentralized thing even though the platform itself is centralized

but having this kind of decision or action towards this current war condition is something commendable.They dont take out it personally and didnt make out any blockage on Russian users.
It is something that you  couldnt really expect since we do see sanctions anywhere on Russia.

[KennyR]

Elizabeth Warren, democrat of Massachusetts have written a letter to Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary under Biden. Now everyone want to make the sanctions effective as Russia tries to use cryptocurrency as a tool. Majority of the members are under Biden administration haven't made it a big proposal, because they're sure that Russia can't overcome the imposed sanctions with cryptocurrency.

The letter explains:

Strong enforcement of sanctions compliance in the cryptocurrency industry is critical given that digital assets, which allow entities to bypass the traditional financial system, may increasingly be used as a tool for sanctions evasion.

Elizabeth Warren to Crypto Exchanges