On Friday, Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, said it will stop accepting Russian ruble payments starting next week. This is because it is getting ready to leave the Russian market.
Binance said in a statement, “As of November 15, 2023, we will no longer accept deposits in Russian rubles.”
The exchange also said that transfers of rubles will still be possible until January 31, 2024.
Binance told its users to move their rubles to CommEX, a new company that had just been formed.
As of September, CommEX was said to have bought Binance’s Russian business for an undisclosed amount. This was because Binance was planning to slowly shut down its services in Russia over the next few months.
Binance also told users that they could either turn their rubles into cryptocurrency or use one of its fiat partners to take their money.
There were rumors that the U.S. Justice Department was looking into the crypto exchange to see if it might have broken war-related sanctions against Russia.
People in Russia are using cryptocurrency platforms more and more since Western sanctions cut Russian banks off from global payment networks.
