The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange announced that all Mastercard and Visa cards issued in Russia will not be able to conduct any transactions on Binance. The ban will be effective as of 21:00 UTC, 9th March.
The ban also includes transactions made by Mastercard and Visa cards issued by financial institutions outside of Russia, however conducted in the Russian Federation on Binance.
The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao took to twitter to clarify that these decisions come not from his own company, but from Mastercard and Visa companies.
Russian customers can still use other resources to fund their Binance accounts, such as third-party payment processors, bank transfers and cryptocurrency deposits.
Whether the ban extends to Bifinity, a subsidiary of Binance, and a fiat to cryptocurrency payment firm is still unclear.Â
Binance previously announced that it will not unilaterally freeze the accounts of Russian users, however it will take appropriate actions for users with regards to sanctions.
Keeping in line with the principles of DeFi, Binance hasn’t imposed any sanctions or restrictions of its own volition on Russian users, but has made its stance clear with a recent $2.5 million donation to UNICEF as part of a $10 million donation to Ukraine.
