Crypto exchange Binance is officially halting its operations in Russia, selling to the newly founded CommEX exchange. The move comes amidst mounting legal pressures and ongoing scrutiny from regulatory bodies in the United States.
Binance’s Head of Compliance, Noah Perlman, elaborated in the statement that the decision to cease operations in Russia aligns with the company’s broader regulatory compliance objectives.
Although the financial aspects of the transaction remain undisclosed, Binance asserts that it will hold no residual financial stake in its Russian operations post-sale.
“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,” Binance’s official statement specifies.
However, Binance will continue to accommodate Russian citizens in other jurisdictions through its global platform.
CommEX was officially launched on September 26, and there is no information yet about its employees or controllers. The exchange opened spot trading pairs BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT for the first time on July 25, and the exchange was officially launched at 12:00 (UTC) on September 26. At the time of writing, its X (Twitter) account has less than 1,000 followers, including CZ.
CommEx platform provides a range of cryptocurrency-related services, including spot and futures trading. As part of the transition plan, Russian users who have completed their KYC verifications will be immediately moved to CommEX.
Prior to the decision to leave, Binance had a significant user base in Russia. According to SimilarWeb, Russia accounted for about 7% of all traffic to the Binance website.