Binance passed Russian investigators one user's client data, which now underpins a terrorism charge over crypto donations to Ukraine. The company had previously described its withdrawal from Russia as complete.

Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume. Millions of users buy, sell and store digital assets on the platform. As a financial services provider, the company is subject to KYC and AML obligations in regulated markets, including cooperation with law enforcement on lawful requests. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Western sanctions followed. In September 2023, Binance sold its entire Russia business to the newly founded platform CommEX. In November that same year, it also paid USD 4.3 billion to settle a US criminal case involving money laundering and sanctions violations. Founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty and stepped down as CEO.

A Reuters exclusive now presents a different picture. Citing investigation files involving IT specialist Yuri Belenkiy, Reuters reported that Binance handed Russian prosecutors his transaction history together with passport and address details. Belenkiy has been held in pre-trial detention since September 2025.

Binance client data underpins the charge against a Ukraine donor

Yuri Belenkiy is 49 years old and works as an IT specialist. He also holds a Russian passport and a Bulgarian residence permit. In October 2025, Russia's Investigative Committee, the federal agency that handles the country's most serious crimes, brought formal charges against him. Prosecutors alleged that Belenkiy transferred more than USD 700 in cryptocurrencies between January 2023 and March 2024. According to the indictment, the recipients were the Ukrainian army and the Azov Brigade, which Moscow classifies as a terrorist organization. The brigade is a unit of Ukraine's National Guard; in June 2024, the US State Department said it had passed the human-rights vetting required under US law, removing a long-standing obstacle to US military assistance. The charge was therefore terrorism financing, despite the indictment naming a total of just over USD 700.

The case began with a donation appeal on Telegram. Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko, who lives in exile, had published wallet addresses there to raise money for medical equipment for Ukrainian soldiers. Babchenko confirmed those appeals. He said Russian senders should avoid them because they face arrest at home. He also said the handover of user data by exchanges was inappropriate.

Investigators requested Belenkiy's transaction history directly from Binance. They wrote to case@binanceholdings.ru, an address that Binance lists on its own website for Russian and Belarusian law enforcement. The response reportedly included much more than a payment history. The file contained confirmation of the customer's identity, date of birth, address, phone number and passport number. It also included copies of the Russian passport and the Bulgarian residence permit. The draft indictment was then sent to the Prosecutor General's Office, which cited those transfers as the basis for the accusations. The case therefore rests heavily on information from the exchange.

Binance kept a line to Moscow after its Russia exit

Binance's sale of its Russia business to CommEX in late September 2023 was presented as a clean break. CommEX was a newly created entity. The agreement included no revenue share and no buyback option. Binance also allowed a transition period of up to one year for users to migrate. The company said it had fully exited the country. However, market observers saw the new exchange as the old business operating under a different name. CommEX itself announced in April 2024 that it would wind down its business, and it closed by late May of that year.

After that exit, Binance said it had no obligation to cooperate with Russian authorities. Even so, the data was sent to Moscow through a channel the company publicly lists. Reuters said this pattern was not new.

In a previous case reported in 2022, Reuters said that in April 2021 Gleb Kostarev met representatives of Rosfinmonitoring, the supervisory body close to the FSB. Kostarev was then Binance's regional head for Eastern Europe and Russia. He agreed to share customer data to help trace Bitcoin donations to the network of opposition figure Alexei Navalny. The case involved more than 670 BTC, worth about USD 28 million at the time. Binance later told Reuters that Russian authorities had never approached the company on the Navalny matter. Navalny died in 2024 in an Arctic penal colony.

On the current case, Binance referred to its general cooperation policy.

"Binance does not make or enforce the laws of any jurisdiction, does not decide charges and does not determine how a government uses information in court proceedings. Like other global financial institutions, we cooperate with lawful requests for information from law enforcement authorities worldwide, subject to applicable legal, data protection and regulatory requirements. Those decisions rest solely with the respective authorities." - Binance spokesperson, written statement

Lawyers see a possible GDPR issue in the data handover

Mike Bystrov, founder of Stellar Consulting, a firm specializing in crypto regulation, said the handover may be legally vulnerable. If Belenkiy registered as an EU resident with a Bulgarian domicile, Bystrov said the GDPR would apply. On that reading, Binance would have had a duty to withhold the data, and without a court order it could not disclose it. Bystrov has worked closely with the company before. In 2021, he was on the legal team that fought off a Russian network block.

Chapter V of the GDPR governs data transfers to third countries and places strict limits on them. Article 48 also says that requests from authorities in third countries generally require an international agreement, such as a mutual legal assistance treaty. On that reading, direct email correspondence would not be covered. Binance disputes Bystrov's assessment. The company has not said whether it considers the transfer a breach.

The key point remains unresolved. It could not be established whether Binance formally listed Belenkiy as an EU customer. The applicability of the regulation remains an open legal question. Supervisory bodies have so far offered no comment. The European Data Protection Board, which coordinates the EU's national data protection authorities, declined to comment and referred responsibility to member states. Bulgaria's data protection commission did not respond to inquiries, and the foreign ministry in Sofia also declined to comment.

The Belenkiy case fits a recurring pattern

Belenkiy is not the only person to face such charges. Legal activists who track these proceedings say there have been several dozen convictions in Russia. In each case, courts charged defendants over crypto payments to recipients Moscow classifies as extremist or terrorist. There is no independently verified total.

The documents on the current proceedings came from The First Department, an NGO that provides legal support to defendants in political criminal cases. According to the organization, it received the files from a relative of Belenkiy, though that could not be independently confirmed. The group's head, Dmitry Zair-Bek, said the case reflects expectations inside the EU. Few in the bloc would expect a company to maintain an open channel to Russian prosecutors after announcing a market exit.

The timing is sensitive for Binance. The exchange still does not hold a MiCA license, the authorization the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation requires from crypto-asset service providers that want to serve the bloc. It withdrew its application in Greece and later signaled a fresh application through France. At the end of June 2026, the company also announced it would halt services in several EU countries, with the cutoff set for 1 July. Before that, the MiCA deadline had passed without authorization. The dispute over client data therefore comes at an awkward moment for that application.