Key takeaways:
- Binance has removed access to Mastercard and Visa transactions for Russian users
- The decision to remove credit card options comes days after Visa and Mastercard severely limited the capabilities of their payment networks in Russia
- Major cryptocurrency exchanges oppose a blanket ban on Russian citizens, arguing that such a decision could be counterproductive
Mastercard and Visa cards transactions unavailable to Binance’s Russian users
Binance, the world’s largest crypto trading platform in terms of trading volume, has announced that Mastercard and Visa cards will no longer be available to Russian customers. The decision comes days after Visa and Mastercard decided to drastically limit the capabilities of their payment networks as a result of economic sanctions levied against the Russian economy.
Per Tuesday’s statement, Binance will no longer accept Visa and Mastercard transactions initiated within Russia. Additionally, transactions initiated outside the country’s borders will also be inaccessible for Russian customers.
A number of leading cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance, have taken the same position when it comes to economic sanctions pertaining to Russia – that is, sanctioning individuals is fine, indiscriminately sanctioning all Russians is not.
The founder and CEO of Binance, Changpen Zhao, wrote in a Friday’s blog post that “unilaterally” freezing accounts of ordinary Russians is not “right” and added that’s it is in the best interest of the US and its allies to let Russians access crypto as it devalues ruble.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell echoed Zhao’s sentiment when responding to Ukraine’s prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s request to “block addresses of Russian users.” “As far as sanctioning individuals, we haven’t seen that work very well,” remarked Powell on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Coinbase blocklisted 25,000 crypto addresses linked to Russian individuals engaging in illicit activity, as a sign of proactive compliance with the sanctions.
If the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate, Western politicians could expand the current list of sanctions to include all exchange accounts in Russia. “Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent,” stated Powell about the possibility of a blanket ban.
