A spokesperson from Binance recently interacted with the media, informing the community that it is likely to withdraw its services from Russia. While that is one of the options that Binance has on the table, there is a chance that the world’s largest crypto exchange platform may actually leave Russian territory.
What prompted this decision is five Russian lenders facing sanctions internationally amid the rising geopolitical conflicts. Binance was earlier instructed not to let customers move their funds through the banks that have been sanctioned. Binance confirmed that it had disabled the said option. However, investigations conducted by the US Department of Justice revealed that users were still able to execute transactions from Russian lenders who have been sanctioned.
The center of the controversy lies in the foundation that Russian users are moving their money out of the country. The purpose for the same is unknown, but the operations, as per the issued sanction, are invalid.
Users can only withdraw their tokens in rubles at the moment. Thereby not allowing them to exchange the tokens in any other currency. The suspension of the service majorly pertains to its peer-to-peer exchange services. Other crypto ventures that have met a similar fate are ByBit, OKX, and KuCoin, among others.
Banks that are facing sanctions in Russia include Tinkoff Bank, Rosbank, and Sber.
What makes matters worse is the fact that Binance is facing legal issues in the US as well. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the US Securities & Exchange Commission are after the firm and its founder, respectively. Changpeng Zhao is accused of violating securities laws. Hence, Binance is facing legal suits while its founder sees other legal consequences.
The development has come at a time when Binance saw the platform lose BTC rapidly in 60 seconds, that is, in just a minute. These were worth $150 million at that time, and withdrawals happened in five different transactions.
This means a total of five transactions happened in Binance that withdrew BTC worth $150 million in a single minute. The token is currently trading at $25,952.90, down by 0.80% in the last 5 days. It is not a surety that the dip is because of the instant withdrawal; however, it can only be assumed that instant withdrawals acted as one of the factors for this fall.
The entire crypto market is under a bearish trend, with most of the tokens losing their values left, right & center.
The five BTC transactions that happened on Binance were to withdraw 5,729 tokens in block 804522. There are many reasons why tokens were withdrawn. Speculation states that it could be a part of an investment strategy, security, or preparation of a major transaction. The chances of a whale taking action are higher with the intent of moving their funds off the platform.
Binance and Russia are looking at the withdrawal of the crypto exchange platform from the country. The spokesperson of the platform has hinted that they are considering exiting the market. It is now up to the Russian authorities on how they handle the matter from here.