The worlds largest crypto exchange Binancesaid Monday that it has banned Russia-based users from trading in all currencies besides the ruble.Binances restrictions follow reporting by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journalon a United States Justice Department investigation into the company's possible violation of financial sanctions on Russia despite its publiccommitment to comply with them after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Russians have increasingly turned to using crypto exchanges after Western sanctions cut off Russian banks from global payment networks.Users residing in Russia can trade on Binance P2P only in fiat currency in rubles.
Any other fiat currencies are prohibited, Binance said.Russian users based outside the country with verified foreign addresses can trade in currencies other than the ruble, the United States dollar, the euro and the Ukrainian hryvnia, the company added in its statement.Over the weekend, Binance said it hadremoved five Russian banks under United States sanctions from its P2P platform.Two of the sanctioned banks Sber and Tinkoff were reportedlyrenamed to green and yellow under Binances P2P payment optionsThe United States Treasury Department has flagged peer-to-peer crypto transactions as potential means of evading sanctions, according to WSJ.Binances peer-to-peer exchange continued to handle substantial ruble trading volumes before the latest restrictions, according to WSJs analysis of company websites, user screenshots and messages in official chat groups.Russias Central Bank recorded nearly $430 million in monthly peer-to-peer trades between October 2022 and March 2023.In April 2022, Binance stopped serving cryptocurrency wallets that were worth 10,000 euros or more and were registered to Russian passport holders.