Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is once again in the spotlight due to its recent decision to eliminate Banco de Venezuela as a payment option from its peer-to-peer (P2P) trading service. This move follows the exchange’s earlier removal of sanctioned Russian banks, demonstrating a clear commitment to adhering to international financial sanctions.

The sudden removal of Banco de Venezuela as a P2P payment method has taken Venezuelan users by surprise. This move mirrors a pattern observed with Russian banks, which were previously delisted from the platform.

The driving force behind this action appears to be a report by the Wall Street Journal on August 24, 2023, which alleged Binance’s involvement in bypassing international financial sanctions.

Banco de Venezuela, once under the ownership of Grupo Santander, was one of Venezuela’s largest financial institutions, controlling more than 11% of the local market in the late 2000s. However, in 2009, it was sold to the state for approximately $1 billion.

Sanctions were subsequently imposed by the United States Treasury Department on Venezuelan government officials and affiliated entities in 2018 and 2019 in response to their handling of the 2014 and 2017 protests.

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Despite the removal of Banco de Venezuela, several private Venezuelan banks, including Banesco, Banplus, BBVA Provincial, and others, remain accessible on Binance’s P2P platform.

The recent scrutiny over the inclusion of sanctioned banks in crypto P2P payment options gained attention following the Wall Street Journal’s revelation that Tinkoff Bank and Sberbank were featured as transfer methods on Binance.

These banks vanished from the platform on the same day, with their “yellow” and “green” options representing their brand colours also disappearing. On August 25, Binance confirmed the complete removal of these sanctioned banks from their list, as stated by a Binance spokesperson.

This trend of exclusion extended beyond Binance, as on August 28, two other major cryptocurrency exchanges, OKX and ByBit, also decided to exclude sanctioned Russian banks from their payment options.