Binance tells Russian users with over €10k to withdraw everything

Binance has announced some significant changes in its services for Russia-based users, which mark the company's effort to align with European Union's fifth wave of sanctions against Russia.

Earlier this month, the EU adopted a new set of restrictions targeting deposits to crypto-wallets of any person, entity, or body linked to Russia and Belarus.

Binance is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms with operations in Europe.

The company's legal team evaluated the sanctions in the past weeks and decided to green light the measures targeting Russia-based investors.

Russians given 3 months to withdraw

According to the announcement, all Binance accounts of Russian nationals, persons residing in the country, or entities established there, having a balance of over €10,000, will only be able to withdraw funds

The deadline for withdrawing the cryptocurrency from Binance is 90 days, and then the accounts will be closed automatically without the possibility of any interaction with the platform.

“No deposits or trading will be permitted on these accounts. The limit also covers all spot, futures, custody wallets, and staked and earned deposits,” - Binance

“In addition, all deposits to accounts for Russian nationals or natural persons residing in Russia, or legal entities established in Russia with over 10,000 EUR will be restricted,” the company said in the announcement.

Russian nationals with under €10k in their balance and who reside outside the sanctioned country remain unaffected, provided they have verified their accounts with proof of address.

Creating new accounts, purchasing, or trading cryptocurrencies is forbidden for sanctioned parties.

While these measures are potentially restrictive to normal Russian citizens, Binance must continue to lead the industry in implementing these sanctions. We believe all other major exchanges must follow the same rules soon.

Bleeping Computer has reached out to the cryptocurrency exchange company for more clarifications and we will update this post as soon as we have a response.

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