In response to the European Union’s latest sanctions against Russia, cryptocurrency exchange Binance has imposed new restrictions on Russian users.
As of March 2023, Russian customers are no longer able to trade in USD and EUR on Binance’s peer-to-peer (P2P) platform. The move follows previous sanctions that disconnected Russia from the Eurozone’s SWIFT and SEPA payment systems.
The restrictions have left Russian citizens in a state of uncertainty and have been met with approval from Anonymous, a well-known international hacktivist group. The group believes that more crypto exchanges should follow suit and impose similar restrictions on Russia.
In contrast, Binance has recently partnered with Ukrainian pharmacies to offer Binance Pay, a faster payment system for medical goods. The move is seen as a positive step toward greater integration with the Eurozone for Ukraine, a country that has long been in conflict with Russia.
The new sanctions from the European Union mark the tenth attempt to stop Russia’s illegal assault on neighboring Ukraine. Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, stated in an open letter that the EU now has the toughest sanctions ever introduced and that they must be strictly applied.