Allegedly, Binance is contemplating a total exit from the Russian market due to the escalating sanctions imposed on the country by Western nations.
The Wall Street Journal was informed on Monday by a spokesperson for the exchange that Binance is considering all of its options, including a complete exit from Russia.
The spokesperson stated that they are considering various possibilities, which include a complete departure as one of the choices.
The choice was made as scrutiny of the exchange for its suspected role in facilitating transfers to and from Russian lenders on the blacklist has grown.
It was discovered last week that the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world gave its users the choice of processing payments for peer-to-peer transactions through five Russian lenders that had been sanctioned, including Tinkoff Bank and Rosbank.
Following the disclosure, Binance declared that it had severed ties with the five Russian banks that were subject to sanctions over the peer-to-peer service for transferring funds in rubles on the exchange.
An inquiry for a statement from Binance did not garner an immediate reply.
Two other well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, Bybit and OKX, have done the same by removing particular Russian banks from their lists of accepted payment methods on their peer-to-peer networks.
In the meantime, in July, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally signed a measure creating a digital ruble. This gave the Bank of Russia, the nation’s central bank, the legal right to serve as the platform operator for the digital ruble.
Binance’s growing legal issues
Recently, Binance has been involved in legal disputes with regulators from several different nations.
The Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), both of which have filed litigation against the exchange and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, respectively, have been at odds with the exchange in the US.
In June, the SEC initiated legal action against Binance and its CEO, citing their apparent disregard for federal securities regulations. The lawsuit included 13 accusations against the platform, encompassing activities like operating an unregistered exchange.
The government’s charges revolved around Binance’s purported violation of regulations by offering unregistered securities, including its BNB token and BUSD stablecoin, to the general public.
Additionally, the SEC leveled allegations of Binance’s failure to register as both an exchange and a broker.
In addition, Binance is charged in the CFTC case with intentionally assisting US consumers in getting around limitations on cryptocurrency trading set by its American subsidiary.
Additionally, there have been rumours that Zhao and Binance may be charged by the US Department of Justice with breaking anti-money laundering regulations.
A number of senior officials from Binance are said to have resigned in response to the current inquiry.
Former IRS agent Matthew Price, SVP for Compliance Steven Christie, Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann, and General Counsel Hon Ng have all departed the organisation.
