Some smaller crypto exchanges remain.ĬEO Changpeng Zhao, widely known by his initials CZ, has said he is against the war and "politicians, dictators that start the wars" but not against "the people on both sides of Ukraine and Russia that are suffering." Zhao didn't comment for this article.
One of Binance's main rivals in Russia,, said on Monday it would no longer serve Russian and Belarusian clients and was selling its Russia business. Other major payment and fintech companies, such as PayPal and American Express, have halted services in Russia since the Kremlin launched what it calls a "special operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. 24, despite requests from the government in Kyiv to Binance and other exchanges to ban Russian users. This account of those efforts is based on interviews with over 10 people familiar with Binance's operations in Russia, including former employees, ex-business partners and crypto industry executives, and a review of text messages that Kostarev sent to people outside the company.īinance has continued to operate in Russia since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on Feb. The encounter, which has not been previously reported, was part of behind-the-scenes efforts by Binance to build ties with Russian government agencies as it sought to boost its growing business in the country, Reuters reporting shows. It said that before the war it was "actively seeking compliance in Russia," which would have required it to respond to "appropriate requests from regulators and law enforcement agencies." Binance told Reuters it had never been contacted by Russian authorities regarding Navalny. Kostarev didn't comment for this article. He told the business associate that he didn't have "much of a choice" in the matter. Navalny, whose network Rosfinmonitoring added that month to a list of terrorist organisations, said the donations were used to finance efforts to expose corruption inside President Vladimir Putin's government.īinance's head of Eastern Europe and Russia, Gleb Kostarev, consented to Rosfin's request to agree to share client data, the messages showed. The Russians wanted Binance to agree to hand over client data, including names and addresses, to help them fight crime, according to text messages the company official sent to a business associate.Īt the time, the agency, known as Rosfinmonitoring or Rosfin, was seeking to trace millions of dollars in bitcoin raised by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a person familiar with the matter said. VILNIUS, April 22 (Reuters) - In April 2021, Russia's financial intelligence unit met in Moscow with the regional head of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange.