Two major crypto exchanges have removed Russian banks under international financial sanctions from their payment options, following Binance. Tinkoff Bank and Sberbank are no longer listed for peer-to-peer transactions on Bybit and OKX. These changes in payment options by the crypto exchanges came to light after The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance had listed these banks, and the banks were completely removed from the list. However, some users still seem to prefer these banks.
No Official Statement Yet
According to Russian media, local users can no longer receive fiat money in exchange for cryptocurrencies in their Tinkoff Bank or Sberbank accounts on OKX and Bybit’s P2P platforms. No official statement has been made by representatives of both companies regarding this matter. It is noteworthy that OKX and Bybit are following Binance, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
However, at the time of writing, OKX still allows users to receive fiat money to their Raiffeisen Bank and Russian Standard Bank accounts. Both financial institutions are not included in the list of entities sanctioned by the United States Treasury.
Banks Completely Removed from P2P Lists
The presence of sanctioned Russian banks in the payment options of crypto exchanges became apparent last week when The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance had listed Tinkoff Bank and Sberbank as transfer methods. On August 24, Tinkoff and Sberbank were removed from the Binance P2P platform, but the “yellow” and “green” options representing their brand colors were still available on the platform. The next day, WSJ reported, citing a Binance spokesperson, that the sanctioned banks had been completely removed from the list.
However, a media outlet discovered that despite the removal, Binance P2P users continued to advertise sales using the “green bank” as their preferred payment option. These users mentioned other payment methods such as Rus Standard Bank or Ak Bars Bank, but clearly stated in the advertiser’s terms that they would only accept transfers made through the “green bank.” According to reports, the same applies to OKX and Bybit, which still offer the option of trading through sanctioned banks in private communication with investors.
