Coinbase and Binance won’t ban Russians from using crypto platforms

People watch the logo of Coinbase Global Inc, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, displayed on the Nasdaq MarketSite jumbotron in Times Square in New York, U.S., April 14, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

March 4 (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O) and Binance reiterated on Friday that they are not considering preemptively banning all Russians from using their platforms.

Some of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges remain in place in Russia, breaking ranks with traditional finance in a move that experts say weakens Western attempts to isolate Moscow after Ukraine’s invasion. Read more

“We believe that everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless otherwise required by law,” Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong said in a series of tweets on Friday.

“We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent user accounts,” a spokesperson for Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

Both cryptocurrency exchanges have said they will comply with government sanctions.

The statements come days after Coinbase and Binance said they would not freeze all Russian accounts following Ukraine’s request to major crypto exchanges for a full ban. Read more

Western countries, including the United States and Britain, have imposed sweeping financial sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, with major Russian banks barred from the SWIFT international payment system. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed or injured and more than a million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin last Thursday launched the biggest attack on a European state since World War II. Read more

Reporting by Rhea Binoy, Shubhendu Satish Deshmukh and Abinaya V in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

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