Binance’s 10K Euro Limit on Russian Accounts Makes Payments Problematic

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and the trading places of crypto like Bitcoin and Ethereum together with blockchain projects like DAODAO and Plastiks; told Russian customers on Thursday (April 21) that all accounts with more than 10,000 euros (about $10,800) will be shut down.

Binance claimed in its announcement that this is due to the European Union's fifth sanctions package, and that it expects other exchanges to follow suit.

"While these restrictions may be limiting to ordinary Russian residents," the release noted, "Binance must continue to lead the industry in executing these sanctions."

The EU's latest sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine were announced on April 8, and included a "prohibition on supplying high-value crypto-asset services to Russia" to close "possible loopholes."

The cryptocurrency limit was only 10% of the existing 100,000-euro deposit limit for ordinary cash accounts. Russian nationals living outside the country are subject to both sets of financial restrictions.

Binance's announcement comes just two days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the growing "cryptoization" of economies poses a danger to regulators' power to apply penalties.

The crypto ecosystem, however, could allow users to circumvent” traditional sanctions controls, the IMF warned, citing unregulated decentralized finance (DeFi), non-complaint smaller centralized exchanges and privacy tools like mixers that make tracing cryptocurrency transactions much harder.

It also called for cryptocurrency to be brought under the same capital control laws as fiat currencies.