Binance’s peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange in Russia has continued to facilitate transactions through sanctioned banks such as Bank of Russia after denying it has ties to “any bank.”
On August 23, several local news media report Binance P2P has rebranded some problematic withdrawal and deposit payment options, namely sanctioned Russian banks like Tinkoff and Rosbank.
Cointelegraph confirmed that the P2P exchange replaced the bank’s names “Tinkoff” and “Rosbank” with terms like “yellow card” and “green card.”
As of this writing, Binance P2P offers customers the service of selling cryptocurrencies like Tether (USDT) for Russian Rubles using a “local card” and receiving them through sanctioned Tinkoff or Rosbank.
The new nomenclature is apparently shortly after wall street journal August 22 report Binance offers Russian customers at least five sanctioned Russian banks, including Rosbank and Tinkoff, as options for processing payments.
In the WSJ report, Binance executives denied having any relationship with “any bank in Russia or elsewhere” regarding its P2P platform. “Binance follows global sanctions rules and imposes sanctions on individuals, organizations, entities and countries blacklisted by the international community, denying such actors access to the Binance platform,” the company said.
The news comes days after leading Russian YouTuber Yuri Dud promoted Binance’s services in Russia on his YouTube channel.A recent video of his invalid YouTube channel – with 10.3 million subscribers – Featured An advertisement for a Binance service offering 5 USDT in exchange for registering on the platform.
In the video, Dud also promotes Binance Earn, a product that allows users to earn passive income in cryptocurrency through a variety of products including flexible savings, lock-in savings, staking, and liquidity mining.
It was unclear how the latest news connected to Western sanctions against Russia. February 2023, European Council sanctioned Russian banks such as Tinkoff and Rosbank are part of the tenth round of sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.America also put Sanctions imposed on Tinkov in May 2023.
related: Binance Limits European Withdrawals Citing Payment Processor Issues
A few months ago, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Justice security division launched an investigation into Binance for allowing Russians to use the exchange in violation of U.S. sanctions.
However, Binance is not the only cryptocurrency exchange facilitating such transactions in Russia. As of this writing, other major P2P cryptocurrency exchanges including Huobi and OKX also allow transfers via Tinkoff, Rosbank, and Sberbank. Huobi and OKX did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Binance representatives declined to comment to Cointelegraph on the ad on Dud’s YouTube channel or the current service in Russia. “Our comments have been reflected in the WSJ report. We will not be making any further comment on this topic at this time,” a Binance spokesperson said.
The company did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment on the renaming of the sanctioned banks to “yellow card” and “green card.”
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