Binance made an official announcement regarding its full withdrawal from the Russian market. The company has opted to sell its Russian operations to a newly established cryptocurrency exchange, CommEX. According to Binance’s statement to crypto firm, the company has agreed to sell its entire Russian business to CommEX., However, specific terms of the deal, such as the purchase price, have not been disclosed.
Binance has outlined its plan to gradually off-board Russian users, with the process expected to span up to one year. According to the announcement: “All assets of existing Russian users are safe and securely protected”.
Noah Perlman, Binance’s Chief Compliance Officer, commented on the company’s future outlook, stating, ‘As we consider the future, it’s evident that our operations in Russia do not align with Binance’s compliance strategy.’
“We remain confident in the long-term growth of the Web3 industry around the world and will focus our energy on the 100+ other countries in which we operate.”
Binance pledged to provide its users with a clear and orderly process for migrating their assets to CommEX. The company will work closely with CommEX to inform users about how to move their assets and provide support throughout the process.
The user migration process to CommEX will occur gradually. Some users who have already completed their Know Your Customer (KYC) verifications will be redirected promptly. Over the next several months, Binance will wind down its operations in Russia and eventually exit the market completely.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) announced that holders of the BNB token will continue to receive a 25% discount on trading fees when using CommEX.
“Everything will be done to ensure a smooth transition. All user funds are safe! ”
In the announcement, Binance made it clear that it would not have any ongoing relationship with CommEX after the transition is complete.
“Unlike similar deals from international companies in Russia, Binance will have no ongoing revenue split from the sale, nor does it maintain any option to buy back shares in the business.”
The news of Binance’s exit comes just one day after CommEX announced its launch on September 26, 2022. The platform is designed to provide a range of cryptocurrency trading services, including spot, futures, and peer-to-peer trading. While the platform currently has an interface in Russian and English, it seems to be primarily targeting Russian users at launch
However, Binance’s decision to exit the Russian market has been in the works for some time, as the exchange has been facing regulatory pressure related to sanctions against Russia. Despite this pressure, Binance was still advertising its services to Russian users as recently as August 2023. However, a few weeks later, several top Russian executives left the company.
As previously reported, Russia is a major market for Binance, as the country accounts for a significant portion of the company’s website traffic. According to data from SimilarWeb, as of the time of writing, Russia accounts for approximately 6.9% of all visits to the website Binance.com.
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