Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has removed five Russian banks subject to US sanctions from its peer-to-peer (P2P) platform, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The move comes amid a Justice Department investigation into whether Bitcoin exchange Binance was being used by the Russians to evade US sanctions, as reported by Bloomberg.
The WSJ also claimed that Binance facilitates ruble transactions through sanctioned banks through its P2P service, which allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly with each other.
A spokesperson from Binance said:
“When deficiencies are reported to us, we try to address and correct them as soon as possible. In line with our ongoing commitments, payment methods that do not comply with our compliance policies on the Binance P2P platform cannot be used on our platform.
Binance aims to strictly comply with the global sanctions rules and imposes sanctions on individuals, organizations, institutions and countries that are blacklisted by the international community, preventing these people from accessing the Binance platform.
We are aware of efforts to circumvent our controls and are taking active action to ensure controls remain strong.”
Among the banks in question were Rosbank and Tinkoff Bank.
*Not investment advice.