The Wall Street Journal: Binance is still processing transactions for Russian clients and may face violations of U.S. sanctions laws

ChainCatcher news, according to The Wall Street Journal, external data shows that Binance is still processing a large number of ruble transactions, potentially violating U.S. global sanctions requirements. According to insiders, the Department of Justice is investigating whether Binance may have violated U.S. sanctions against Russia.

According to reports, messages on the company's website, user screenshots, and official chat groups indicate that through layers of intermediaries, customers can transfer funds from sanctioned Russian banks to Binance accounts, and Binance also supports peer-to-peer trading of rubles for digital tokens, which often involves banks that are blacklisted by the West. Recent scrutiny of Binance's peer-to-peer service website shows that Binance has recently offered at least five sanctioned Russian banks (including Rossiya Bank and Tinkoff Bank) as options for processing payments to Russian customers.

In addition, according to data from the data provider CCData, the trading volume from Russia on Binance's main exchange business has decreased compared to the peak in early 2022, but has rebounded in recent months. CCData reported that Binance processed $8 billion in ruble cryptocurrency transactions in July, most of which were Tether.