Since the U.S sanctions on Iran got revived on Nov 5, several companies with ties to the U.S have been dishing out notification of service termination to users from the country. Going by a recent report from Binance, this is not in anyway limited to centralised platforms. Binance has warned its Iran based clients to withdraw their funds.
Binance Sent Warning Emails
According to Binance, it has been sending several emails to its Iranian clients, informing them that it will be closing their accounts and blocking access to its platform. The email also instructed them to withdraw all their Cryptos from the exchange.
From this, it is clear the Binance does not want to have anything to do with Iranians henceforth.
The U.S sanction on Iran is getting intense on a daily basis, and with the exchange doing everything in its power to maintain its status in the US market, keeping Iranian on its platform does not sound like a solid business idea.
John Collins, the former head of Policy for Coinbase, has made some statements regarding this. He made it known that “many companies are making huge efforts to maintain their status in the US market, and that means going by the rules put in place by the US government.”
Collins further shed more light on why Binance is not allowing Iranians to access its platform.
He stated that:
“With the US reviving its sanctions on Iran, Binance finds itself in a corner because it can no longer serve Iranians and US citizens at the same time – especially now that about 13% of its total user traffic originates from the U.S”
Tracking and Blocking
Based on a recent report Binance has started tracing its users IP address, and anyone suspected to be operating an account from Iran gets a warning of service termination. For those who registered on the platform using an Iranian passport during the KYC (Know-Your-Customer), their account gets automatically flagged and a notification warning them to withdraw all their funds from the exchange get forwarded to their email repeatedly.