Teng's statement doesn't explain why Binance provided the data after its Russian exit or what legal basis it relied on.
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, gave Russian investigators a customer's passport copy, Bulgarian residence permit and transaction history in 2025, after saying it had fully exited the country.
- Documents reviewed by Reuters identified Yuri Belenkiy, a Russian IT specialist, as the sender of more than $700 to Ukrainian military fundraisers.
- The transfers were later cited in terrorism-financing charges against Belenkiy, who remains jailed awaiting trial.
Investigators received two replies from [case@binanceholdings.ru], an address Binance's website still lists for Russian and Belarusian law enforcement.
They also asked Binance to identify other customers who sent money to one fundraiser, although the documents did not reveal whether Binance complied.
"Like other global financial institutions, we cooperate with lawful information requests from law enforcement globally," a Binance spokesperson told Reuters.
Earlier talks involved an FSB-linked agency
The disclosure provides the first documented example reported by Reuters of Binance customer records reaching Russian authorities.
In 2022, Reuters reported that Gleb Kostarev, Binance's head of Eastern Europe and Russia, agreed to share customer names and addresses with Rosfinmonitoring, Russia's financial intelligence agency, as it sought to trace donations to Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin critic whom five European governments say Russia killed with the lethal toxin epibatidine in prison in 2024.
- Kostarev reportedly told an associate he didn't have "much of a choice."
- Binance denied sharing data related to Navalny and called suggestions that it supplied customer information to FSB-controlled agencies "categorically false."
Binance announced its complete Russian exit in September 2023, selling the business to CommEX without a continuing revenue share or repurchase option.
Binance stopped publishing response times
The Coinformer previously found that Binance's latest compliance report counted 313,653 law-enforcement requests but omitted response times, rejection figures and country-level data.
The Coinformer also geolocated Moscow City in a recent Binance recruitment video, although there was no evidence the stock footage signaled a return to Russia.
- The disclosure comes as the exchange's wider regulatory position remains unsettled.
- Binance withdrew its Greek MiCA application after its European future came under doubt and is seeking authorization elsewhere in the bloc.