Mastercard and Visa Cards Issued in Russia Unavailable on Binance

[virasog]

Binance will stop the acceptance of visa and mastercards in russia. Does this mean that they do not want the russians to convert their money into crypto or are they planning to completely ban the exchange for the russian users ?

CZ told that this move was not in their control meaning there was external pressure on binance for this action ?

More details:-
Binance To Stop Accepting Mastercard, Visa Cards in Russia

Official Announcement here:

https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/675e9bb985ec43d8a63d8a9f26dac7c4

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[seoincorporation]

Binance will stop the acceptance of visa and mastercards in russia. Does this mean that they do not want the russians to convert their money into crypto or are they planning to completely ban the exchange for the russian users ?

CZ told that this move was not in their control meaning there was external pressure on binance for this action ?

More details:-
Binance To Stop Accepting Mastercard, Visa Cards in Russia

As Binance mentioned, this is not a Binance-Russia problem, they will allow the Russian users, but Binance and Mastercard get banned in Russia as part of the sanctions. You can read more about the ban in the next article posted in the guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/06/russians-visa-mastercard-ban-domestic-purchases-mir

I think this applies not only to Binance, other exchanges will get affected.

[OcTradism]

CZ said a few times that Binance does allow Russia to break sanctions with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. At least, they support Ukraine this way and more than that they have $10M donation to this nation too.

Binance founder says cryptocurrencies won’t help Russia evade sanctions
Ukraine, Russia, Sanctions and Crypto

They shown their voice and responsibility to fight for the truth and lives of the people. I respect Binance with their quick donations, charity and other responses to that invasion.

[DaveF]

MC and Visa have pulled out of Russia. The cards will still work till they expire, BUT any money transfers in or out are banned. So this really has nothing to do with Binance.
Everyone in Russia can no longer use their cards for any international purchases OR fiat purchases.
Binance is probably in a gray area but due to the plummeting value of Russian currency, and the fact that it may hit some sanctions it's not worth their time or effort.

-Dave

[avikz]

Binance will stop the acceptance of visa and mastercards in russia. Does this mean that they do not want the russians to convert their money into crypto or are they planning to completely ban the exchange for the russian users ?

CZ told that this move was not in their control meaning there was external pressure on binance for this action ?

More details:-
Binance To Stop Accepting Mastercard, Visa Cards in Russia

Lol! Visa and Mastercard has banned their services in Russia and that's why Binance has no choice but to reatrict visa and Mastercard for their Russian clients. It's not a choice of Binance, rather it's a part of the ongoing sanctions.

Please change the thread title to correct the perspective. Otherwise it sounds like Binance has banned these all, which is obviously not true!

[Charles-Tim]

As Binance mentioned, this is not a Binance-Russia problem, they will allow the Russian users, but Binance and Mastercard get banned in Russia as part of the sanctions. You can read more about the ban in the next article posted in the guardian.

That means if only international transactions are banned, Russians will have no alternative than to go for p2p means of exchanging bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and ruble.

“Until the expiration of their validity, Visa and Mastercard cardholders have access to all the funds on their accounts, as well as all the usual payment transactions – paying for purchases, transferring funds from card to card, withdrawing cash, etc.”

The expiration date can take up to 4 years, although some users' card expiration date would have already close by.

[NeuroticFish]

More details:-

OMG what a crap news site. I won't even mention it. They've twisted the "cards will be unavailable" announcement, which is clearly related to the fact those cards will basically become useless plastic just everywhere (as said, because VISA/MC stops them) into something that sounds like it would be Binance's fault.

OP, sorry, you were misled. It would be a good idea to consider looking for better sources of information.

[darefreads]

Binance will stop the acceptance of visa and mastercards in russia. Does this mean that they do not want the russians to convert their money into crypto or are they planning to completely ban the exchange for the russian users ?

CZ told that this move was not in their control meaning there was external pressure on binance for this action ?

More details:-
Binance To Stop Accepting Mastercard, Visa Cards in Russia

Well, russians will not be able to use Visa and mastercard and hence binance had to take this step. Nothing to worry about. By the way, don't we want both visa and MasterCard stop their services worldwide and we see only crypto usuage. The future is near. 

[virasog]

Binance will stop the acceptance of visa and mastercards in russia. Does this mean that they do not want the russians to convert their money into crypto or are they planning to completely ban the exchange for the russian users ?

CZ told that this move was not in their control meaning there was external pressure on binance for this action ?

More details:-
Binance To Stop Accepting Mastercard, Visa Cards in Russia

Lol! Visa and Mastercard has banned their services in Russia and that's why Binance has no choice but to reatrict visa and Mastercard for their Russian clients. It's not a choice of Binance, rather it's a part of the ongoing sanctions.

Please change the thread title to correct the perspective. Otherwise it sounds like Binance has banned these all, which is obviously not true!

Thank you for pointing this out. I have changed the title so it is not misleading anymore and people do not get the wrong perception about binance. Also, i have updated the OP with this official announcement.

Mastercard and Visa Cards Issued in Russia Unavailable on Binance

[e_abrams]

What's the situation with American Express, I wonder. They too exited Russia very recently. I imagine Binance wouldn't work with those either?

[m2017]

Binance will stop the acceptance of visa and mastercards in russia. Does this mean that they do not want the russians to convert their money into crypto or are they planning to completely ban the exchange for the russian users ?

CZ told that this move was not in their control meaning there was external pressure on binance for this action ?

More details:-
Binance To Stop Accepting Mastercard, Visa Cards in Russia

Lol! Visa and Mastercard has banned their services in Russia and that's why Binance has no choice but to reatrict visa and Mastercard for their Russian clients. It's not a choice of Binance, rather it's a part of the ongoing sanctions.

Please change the thread title to correct the perspective. Otherwise it sounds like Binance has banned these all, which is obviously not true!

Yes, it's more like Binance had no other choice but to stop accepting this cards from Russian citizens. At the moment, Binance doesn't refuse its customers from America and so far he keeps his word. Will be watching events change.

In general, everything is developing in such a way that Russian residents have no choice but to use Bitcoin to trade with the rest of the world. Did people imagine BTC adoption like this?  

[fzkto]

This is due to sanctions, one of which is the switch-off of Russia from swift. Most likely CZ supported the global sanctions by banning ruble transfers as such transfers are not part of the sanctions, i.e. within Russia visa and mc continue to operate. I don't want to believe the bad, but most likely the next step could be blocking Russian users.

[Upgrade00]

What's the situation with American Express, I wonder. [~link~] I imagine Binance wouldn't work with those either?

That would be a ripple effect of the bank. Payment systems which are restricting operations to Russia would affect all transactions, including cryptocurrency transfers.

I don't want to believe the bad, but most likely the next step could be blocking Russian users.

That would not be a necessary measure and would further heighten the mistrust many people have about using centralized exchanges.
Some top exchanges have declared that they would not be banning Russian accounts on their platforms.

[DaveF]

Well the Ruble is now dead: https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/1501315627386118145
Can't trade it for anything inside of Russia. Just about all foreign banks will not take it.
 
I suppose you could trade it for BTC, but who in their right mind would take something that will probably be worthless for something that has value.

-Dave

[NeuroticFish]

Well the Ruble is now dead

It would be the ultimate irony they'd start using Hryvnia.

I suppose you could trade it for BTC, but who in their right mind would take something that will probably be worthless for something that has value.

I find all the "bitcoin saves Russia" part a highly overrated dream of the (imho) new bitcoiners.
The thing is that, as you said, nobody sane would sell bitcoin for rubles. And those who really have money, they have euro, dollars, maybe yuans too, probably also not under their name. So whether they change into bitcoin or not is completely unrelated to the sanctions.

[witcher_sense]

I suppose you could trade it for BTC, but who in their right mind would take something that will probably be worthless for something that has value.

Unless you can buy goods and services directly with bitcoin in Russia, there is always a justification for exchanging your lovely bitcoin for something completely worthless. Well, ruble won't be deemed "completely" worthless and useless as long as all prices are denominated in its terms, and as long as it remains legal tender on the territory. If merchants refuse to accept the legal tender, they're breaking the law, aren't they? If, on the other hand, they wanted to accept bitcoin directly instead of being paid with falling currency, I wouldn't start blaming them for that.

As for buying bitcoin with rubles, this is going to be more challenging to achieve without paying a considerable premium to alleviate the risks associated with the high volatility of the ruble. It is still possible for people in Russia to buy digital dollars with their rubles and later exchange dollars for bitcoin. I am not sure, however, if the digital dollars sitting in your bank account is a good idea since Central Bank has the power to freeze them or forcibly convert them to something less valuable.

[m2017]

Well the Ruble is now dead: https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/1501315627386118145
Can't trade it for anything inside of Russia. Just about all foreign banks will not take it.
 
I suppose you could trade it for BTC, but who in their right mind would take something that will probably be worthless for something that has value.

-Dave

Ruble is the only way to pay for any goods and services on the territory of Russia, legalized by the constitution. All other currencies are prohibited from being used as payment in this countryat the legislative level. In principle, the same is true in any other country. Only instead of Ruble is indicated its own national currency.

You don't take into account the fact that you cann't pay using BTC, and people need to pay for housing, utilities, food, clothing, gasoline, auto repairs, medical services, and so on. The list can be long. It turns out that there is no other choice than:

would take something that will probably be worthless for something that has value.

I suppose you could trade it for BTC

I would like to see how you would do it.  For example, pay for gas or medical services. The possibilities of BTC as a means of payment are overrated in the world. At the moment, there are few places  where can pay with this.

[dkbit98]

I am almost sure Binance will soon add some Chinese alternative cards system that is not connected with western payment system or swift at all.
With this ban and restrictions we see recently they are only making cooperation of Russia and China stronger, and in process they are killing economy in Europe.
Chinese system for credit card payments is called UnionPay and I am sure they have other options Binance could add to mitigate this.
I am not sure if Binance exchange even works in China but using their cards is unrelated with that.

[stompix]

Well the Ruble is now dead

It would be the ultimate irony they'd start using Hryvnia.

The ultimate irony is already here, every Russian citizen is cursing the US and desperately trying to get dollars for rubles.  

I find all the "bitcoin saves Russia" part a highly overrated dream of the (imho) new bitcoiners.
The thing is that, as you said, nobody sane would sell bitcoin for rubles. And those who really have money, they have euro, dollars, maybe yuans too, probably also not under their name. So whether they change into bitcoin or not is completely unrelated to the sanctions.

Of course, Bitcoin or crypto won't save Russia ever!
It can save the personal finances of poeple in Russia, that's a given but it can't force foreign companies to deal with Russian companies so it does zero.
TSMC could fr example still sell chips to Russia and get paid via SWIFT, but it decides not to, and not offering them oil or gold or coins or anything else will change this.
But of course, poeple here have a biased vision, they think cryptos are the solution to everything, it will be another chapter in the revelation that it's not. Personal finances are one thing, global trade is a different thing, and when I see poeple who invest 90% of their money in shitcoins giving advice on how a country should run makes me laugh.

This is from CZ:

Does Russia want to use crypto? No, it devalues the ruble. Russians converting from ruble to crypto weakens the ruble, which weakens Russia’s powers

Doesn't it make sense?
Why would Russia switch to crypto when that means actually importing foreign currency and destroying your own economy?
This si how the Weimar Republic got $%$# it had to buy dollars with useless paper money, Russia will have to do the same, it will have to buy an asset that is in the best scenario having a constant price in USD with a evaluating ruble. It's economic suicide.

[Darker45]

What's the situation with American Express, I wonder. They too exited Russia very recently. I imagine Binance wouldn't work with those either?

Again, it's not about Binance. Binance would continue to work with these payment networks. It's just that Russians using American Express cards issued within the country cannot anymore use these cards with Binance and other international transactions since they are already cut off from the international network. But Russians living outside Russia are not included in the sanction. They could still use their American Express cards which are issued outside Russia.