Russian court order removes Binance website from regulator’s blacklist

The website of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is no longer formally blacklisted in Russia, according to a new court ruling.

According to a Jan. 21 report by Russian news agency Kommersant, the Arkhangelsk Regional Court has annulled a previous decision to blacklist the Binance website in Russia. Gleb Kostarev, Binance’s head of operations for Russia and the CIS, confirmed the news to Cointelegraph, stating that the court hearing took place on Jan. 20.

The latest court decision reverts a previous ruling made in 2020. In September, Binance announced that its website came on the list of prohibited websites by Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor. The regulator blacklisted the website based on a court decision charging the site for disseminating prohibited information. Despite the block, the website was still available in Russia without additional access tools like VPNs.

At publishing time, the Binance website still appears on Roskomnadzor’s list of prohibited sites, but access is not restricted.

Kostarev said that Binance is still waiting for the court documents on the latest decision, which the company expects to receive in the next two weeks. “After getting a document we will send a notification to remove us from the list,” he said.

The executive also said that the blacklisting has not impacted Binance’s trading volumes in the Russian market. “Though the September ban had no impact on our volumes in Russia, for us it was important to protect our reputation and appeal in this case,” Kostarev stated.

The blacklist reversal comes shortly after Russia officially adopted its major crypto law “On Digital Financial Assets” on Jan. 1, 2021. In August 2020, Roskomnadzor banned another major cryptocurrency website in Russia, BestChange.ru.