CommEx, the Russian successor to the Binance crypto exchange, has officially announced its decision to cease operations and has stopped accepting deposits. After acquiring Binance’s Russian business in a confidential agreement in September 2023, CommEx is now gradually winding down its platform. The company made the announcement on its official Telegram group on March 25, immediately halting deposits and closing new registrations. CommEx advised users to withdraw their assets to third-party wallets as soon as possible.
According to the suspension roadmap provided by CommEx, futures trading will be discontinued on March 28, and peer-to-peer exchange will start to be suspended from April 2. By April 23, CommEx plans to completely shut down its spot trading platform and suspend its website by May 10. The announcement also stated that user accounts retaining assets after May 10, 2024, will be subject to a 1% asset management fee.
Earlier in September 2023, Binance had hinted at its departure from Russia when top local executives, including vice president of Eastern Europe Gleb Kostarev, stepped down. A few weeks later, Binance announced that it had sold its entire Russian business to the newly established exchange, CommEx. However, no details about the founders or executives of CommEx were disclosed.
CommEx later clarified that it operated independently of Binance but acknowledged that some of its core members were former Binance staff. This mysterious deal sparked speculation among local crypto enthusiasts, who noticed similarities between the Binance and CommEx websites, referring to the new exchange as a “Russian version” of Binance.US.
At the time of the sale, Russia was Binance.com’s top market in terms of user visits, accounting for 6.9% of total visits.
The Binance-CommEx deal took place amid former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s efforts to convince a U.S. court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June 2023. The SEC accused Binance of offering the sale of unregistered securities and operating illegally in the United States. Zhao subsequently resigned from Binance and pleaded guilty in November 2023. He is currently in the U.S. on bail with a $175 million bond after his request to visit family in the United Arab Emirates was denied. Originally scheduled for February 2024, Zhao’s sentencing has been postponed to late April.
CommEx’s closure also coincides with increased scrutiny of Binance by various countries around the world. On March 25, the Philippines blocked local users’ access to Binance due to concerns over the exchange’s unlicensed operations in the country.