Binance allegedly transmitted customer data to Russian authorities despite its withdrawal from the country

A troublesome affair. Binance had announced its complete withdrawal from Russia in 2023. Two years later, the platform would have responded to a request from Russian investigators concerning one of its former clients. According to documents seen by Reuters, the information transmitted was then included in the indictment of Yuri Belenkiy, a Russian computer scientist prosecuted for financing terrorism. Aged 49 and holding a Bulgarian residence permit, he has been imprisoned in Russia since September 2025 while awaiting his trial. Russian authorities accuse him of having sent more than $700 in cryptocurrencies to collections linked to the Ukrainian army.

According to documents obtained by the NGO The First Department and examined by Reuters, the Russian Investigative Committee reportedly asked Binance for Yuri Belenkiy's transaction history. The platform reportedly responded twice from an address presented on its site as a contact channel intended for Russian and Belarusian law enforcement ([email protected]).

The files transmitted would have confirmed that Yuri Belenkiy was at the origin of transfers made to an address communicated by Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin based abroad. Binance also allegedly provided his date of birth, address, phone number and passport number, as well as copies of his Russian passport and Bulgarian residence permit.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, the payments were made between January 2023 and March 2024 for the benefit of the Ukrainian army and a group associated with the Azov regiment, considered a terrorist organization by Moscow. Arkady Babchenko claims that his collections were used in particular to purchase medical equipment for Ukrainian soldiers.

The transactions communicated by Binance were then cited among the elements justifying the accusations. Reuters nevertheless specifies that it has only consulted documents relating to this file. The agency could not determine whether the platform had identified other donors.

This cooperation came after the announcement in September 2023 of the complete sale of Binance's Russian operations. The platform then affirmed that it did not retain any revenue sharing or buyout option. However, its commercial withdrawal did not necessarily prohibit any further response to the country's authorities.

Mike Bystrov, lawyer specializing in the regulation of cryptocurrencies, believes that the exchange would not have been obliged to provide this data. According to him, their transmission could even have been contrary to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) if Yuri Belenkiy was registered with the platform as a resident of the European Union.

But this point is clearly not established. A Bulgarian residence permit does not prove that one's Binance account was part of a European entity. Reuters teams were unable to verify its registration status and the Bulgarian data protection authority did not respond. The European Data Protection Board, for its part, refused to comment on this particular case.