In an interview, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that his exchange complies with Russian restrictions. Zhao also stated that the exchange would not impose an outright ban on all Russian users. According to Coindesk, Ukraine has also requested that numerous other exchanges remove Russian users.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has spoken out on his cryptocurrency exchange’s views regarding Russia, claiming that an outright ban on Russian users would be “unethical.”
According to Zhao,Binance complies with sanctions
Binance complies with sanctions that ban Russian individuals’ financial activity, Zhao said in a Bloomberg interview. Extending the limits beyond the sanctioned persons would be “unethical for us to do,” he added.
“I just don’t believe it’s our decision to freeze user accounts,” Zhao stated. He then reaffirmed his position, saying that “it is not for us to arbitrarily freeze the bank accounts of some Russian people.”
Many Russian users, Zhao continued, do not support their country’s actions towards Ukraine, and “the most vulnerable groups of people have limited influence on foreign politics.” A blanket ban, he said, would certainly drive legitimate Russian traders to smaller, less compliant trading sites.
Binance follows the same rules as banks, according to Zhao, who added that “right now…most banks follow the same penalty list as we do.”
In response to the question of whether sanctioned Russian oligarchs may trade anonymously on Binance, Zhao stated that his entire exchange is based on identity verification. Although Binance used to have lax KYC policies, the exchange strengthened its standards in August of last year.
Zhao stated that he does not know how many accounts Binance has frozen to date, and that enforcement is the responsibility of Binance’s compliance team.
Binance and its staff had previously made more circumspect statements on Ukraine sanctions. In a statement to Reuters, Binance claimed it was “blocking accounts of persons on the sanctions list.” In a statement to CNBC, it also stated that it would not “unilaterally freeze millions of innocent consumers’ accounts.”
Jesse Powell, the CEO of the competitor exchange Kraken, also spoke out at the time. Kraken, according to Powell, could only freeze customer cash if it was legally forced to do so.
On Tuesday, Coinbase issued a similar statement, noting that it “would not impose a blanket restriction on all Coinbase transactions involving Russian addresses” at this time.
According to Coindesk, Ukraine has also ordered six other exchanges to restrict Russian users. Huobi, KuCoin, Bybit, Gate.io, Whitebit, and Kuna are among the other exchanges.
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