A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph on September 25 that the crypto exchange is still providing services to some existing Russian customers to securely protect their digital assets. “We continue to serve a limited number of existing Russian users to ensure that their digital assets remain safe,” the spokesperson said.

The Binance representative also emphasized that the exchange “fully complies with global sanctions regulations” and complies with restrictions on individuals, organizations and countries under international sanctions.

This statement came one year after Binance completed its withdrawal from Russia. In a statement made on September 27, 2023, Binance announced that it sold its local operations in Russia to CommEx, a new exchange. However, the financial details of this deal were never shared.

Noah Perlman, Binance’s compliance officer, stated that it had become impossible for the company to stay in Russia within the framework of its compliance policies, and said, “When we looked at the future, we realized that operating in Russia was not compatible with Binance’s compliance strategy.”

In the statement made after Binance announced that it was terminating its operations in Russia, it was stated that the company still strictly adheres to global compliance standards and maintains its goal of creating industry-leading compliance programs capable of collaborating with law enforcement agencies around the world.

Binance, which transferred its Russian users to the CommEx platform, announced that it has completely ended its activities in the Russian market after this transition. However, CommEx announced that it will completely cease its operations in April 2024.

Although CommEx claimed that it had no direct ties to Binance, it acknowledged that there were some former employees from Binance Russia within the company.

Even after Binance announced that it was ending its operations in Russia, the Russian community remained active on social media platforms. The company’s Russian-language Telegram news channel continues to have 130,000 subscribers.

Even though Binance has notified Russian users that they will no longer be able to trade on the platform, it is still sharing updates about new token listings on Binance Launchpool on its Telegram channel.

In a post made in January 2024, it was stated that “Access to Binance P2P for Russian citizens residing outside the Russian Federation and verifying this with proof of address will not change.”

After Binance announced its withdrawal from Russia, website traffic in Russia experienced a significant decline. According to web analytics platform SimilarWeb, Binance’s site traffic in Russia declined by 43% between August 2023 and July 2024.

However, despite this decline, Russia still remained one of the countries driving the most traffic to the Binance website, with Russian users accounting for 6% of Binance’s total site visits.

Following its exit from the Russian market, Binance transferred its local operations to CommEx and enabled this platform to continue its operations on its own. However, CommEx also announced that it will cease all its activities by April 2024.

Although the company does not provide information about its founders and senior managers, it is known that some former Binance Russia employees have joined the CommEx team.

Throughout this process, Binance reiterated its commitment to global compliance standards and emphasized that operating in compliance with regulatory frameworks is its priority. In the long term, the company aims to develop compliance programs around the world and fully comply with global sanctions.

Although Binance’s connection with its users in Russia has weakened, the company still shares content for this community through its social media channels and continues to provide certain services such as P2P transactions. However, Binance’s future strategy for the limited user base remaining in Russia is not yet clear.