Binance Quietly Supports Russian Clients Despite Public Commitment to Global Sanctions

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance isn't ready yet to let go of the Russian market. Despite announcing its complete exit from Russia in 2023, Binance continues to serve its Russian clients in private through its Russian arm CommEx.

Still, Binance has again and again stressed that ensuring regulatory compliance remains the company's highest priority and its goal is to establish "Industry-leading compliance programs that cooperate effectively with law enforcement worldwide."

Binance passing that baton to CommEx

In September 2023, Binance announced that they will be selling the entire of its Russian business to CommEx. During that time, Binance's Chief Compliance Officer, Noah Perlman gave a statement saying that operating in Russia isn't in line with Binance's compliance strategy.

This previously unknown company also seems very mysterious about its founder and key executives, with no information about who owns it or who is running it. The only information it provides is an email and a mention that any legal disputes would be held in Hong Kong.

While the CommEx denied having any form of communication with Binance, it has acknowledged that its team consists of several ex-Binance members from its Russian branch. Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the founder and ex-CEO of Binance, denies being the owner of CommEx, which raised numerous questions due to the similarity in the user interface and the establishment between the two platforms.

The most bizarre thing about this takeover is that CommEx only launched its platform just a few days before it announced this deal with Binance, making netizens even more skeptical about the relationship between the two entities. In less than one year after its takeover, CommEx has announced that it would be shutting its doors entirely by April 2024.

Binance remains active in Russia

Since its exit from Russia, visits to Binance's website from Russia have dropped by 43% between August 2023 and July 2024.

Despite this reduction, Russia remains one of Binance's major traffic sources, accounting for 6% of the platform's total visits. Russia's traffic share is comparable to other major markets on Binance, including Turkey and Vietnam, which account for 8% and 6.6% of its total traffic, respectively.

Binance's Russian-language news channel on Telegram also has around 130,000 subscribers. Till date, the channel continues to share updates about new token listing on Binance Launchpool despite repeated claims that it has already severed all ties with Russia.

When pressed by the media, Binance remains adamant to admit that the significant traffic share in Russia or certain services to Russian users proves that Bianance is still relatively active in the market. But the company's spokesman did say:

"It only means that we continue to serve a limited number of existing Russian users. And we will inform the community of future plans."

This comes after Binance CEO Richard Teng announced that the exchange surpassed $100 trillion in all time in all time trade volume in September. Binance is also currently waiting for the return of its former CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao, who is expected to be released from prison in the United States on September 29.