Just-In: Binance Denies Sharing User Data With Russian Agencies

Binance on Saturday vehemently denied media reports stating the exchange shared user data with Russian agencies.

The world’s largest crypto exchange also refuted claims it shared data linked to Bitcoin donations to popular Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with any Russian federal agencies.

Binance helped Russia in accessing user data?

A report by Reuters, published on Friday, claimed that back in April 2021, the regional head of Binance had a meeting with Russia‘s financial intelligence unit in Moscow. The agenda of the meeting was to secure user data with names and addresses from Binance. The Russian agency was seeking details in order to counter illegal activities.

The report says that Russian agencies were trying to track millions of dollars in Bitcoin donations to jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In a blog post, Binance asserted that prior to the war, the exchange was working in Russia just like any other global firm. It also claimed that the Binance was even trying to push Russia  to build potential crypto related regulations.

The exchange also released emails between its employees and Reuters journalists.

Exchange took effective measures against Russia

Over data sharing claim, Binance mentioned that any government in the world can ask for user data but with proper legal authority. However, the platform has the power to reject the request. Binance clarified that they don’t have any different kind of agreement with the Russian government.

Meanwhile, the crypto exchange raised the point that they haven’t assisted the government in investigating jailed opposition leaders. However, the case against Navalny declared that there were no such donations that were subject to an investigation related to digital currencies.

Binance highlighted that they even reacted aggressively to implement sanctions against Russia. The exchange claims it is the only crypto platform to apply the latest round of European sanctions against Russia. In addition, Binance also donated over $10 million to help Ukraine amid the war.