Discovering the Benefits of CommEx: Russia’s Binance Successor

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has declared that it has voluntarily left Russia, selling its local operations to CommEx, a completely new exchange. Binance has promised its customers a “smooth” transition, yet has not provided much information about its successor in Russia.

When the announcement was made, not much was known about the founders or background of CommEx. The exchange was launched on Sept. 26, 2023, only a day before Binance declared the sale of its business to the newly created exchange for an undisclosed amount.

A spokesperson for CommEx did not reply to numerous inquiries from users in the official Telegram group about the company’s owners or executives. The individual stated that CommEx is registered in the Seychelles and will serve its customers as a global exchange focused on two primary regions: the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Asia.

Voyager Crypto Today, Todays Crypto, Atom Crypto, Crypto Aggregator, Crypto Flash, Crypto Currency Reddit, Web 3.0 Websites are some of the services that CommEx is expected to offer.

CommEx already on Binance-owned CoinMarketCap

At launch, CommEx is supported only by a browser version, with the firm promising to introduce a mobile app soon. Despite being launched just a day ago, CommEx is already listed on CoinMarketCap, the crypto tracking website that Binance acquired in April 2020. On the other hand, its rival CoinGecko still doesn’t include any information about CommEx.

According to CoinMarketCap data, CommEx lists 25 trading pairs at launch, including Tether (USDT) and Binance’s BNB (BNB) cryptocurrency. “CommEx is a rapidly expanding crypto exchange, backed by top-tier crypto VCs,” reads the description of the new exchange on CoinMarketCap.

CommEx will initially support peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in Russia, allowing users to exchange their crypto without using the platform’s fiat channels. The platform will launch spot trading of USDT against Russia’s fiat currency, the ruble, once the fiat channels are live, according to a spokesperson in CommEx’s Telegram group.

A spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph that it would be “entirely optional” for Binance users to move over to CommEx. “You may also withdraw your funds to another crypto aggregator if you’d like,” the person noted, adding that users would still be able to migrate their assets to CommEx. The spokesperson added:

According to the CommEx representative, users can trade without completing Know Your Customer (KYC) checks for up to 2 Bitcoin (BTC) in withdrawals. The firm will not allow account registration or services in locations including the United States, Belgium, the Republic of Cyprus, Czechia, the Netherlands and Singapore, as well as sanctioned regions like Iran and Crimea, CommEx’s location restrictions page reads.

The spokesperson also said it’s unlikely that Binance’s contactless payment tool, Binance Pay, will continue to work with CommEx.

Users question CommEx ownership

Binance’s announcement has stirred up some debate in the crypto community about who owns CommEx, the successor of Binance in Russia. Some users have noticed similarities between the Binance and CommEx websites, while others said that CommEx was a “full copy” of Binance’s website.

“They just changed the logo and colors but essentially it’s the same website. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people who left Binance would be running CommEx,” one commenter wrote in a now-deleted comment on CommEx’s Telegram group.

Some of the similarities include close resemblances between Binance and CommEx’s privacy notices and other website pages like terms of use. For example, CommEx’s privacy notice is essentially a reworded version of Binance’s privacy notice, following its structure and many formulations.

Russia is one of Binance’s most popular markets, with the country being the top market in terms of user visits for the website Binance.com, accounting for 6.9% of total visits at the time of writing, according to data from SimilarWeb.

“I don’t think that CZ [Changpeng Zhao] is ready to abandon such a big market like Russia and just leave,” one local crypto observer told Cointelegraph. Some people in the community have compared CommEx in Russia to Binance’s affiliate in the United States, Binance.US, which claims to operate “independently” of Binance.

“It looks like some sort of Binance.US but just without the word ‘Binance’ in its name,” another local crypto enthusiast told Cointelegraph.

A spokesperson for Binance declined to comment on whether the company is aware of CommEx’s founders or executives. CommEx’s spokesperson declined to comment immediately, stating that the firm is focused on “platform optimization and stability,” as the CommEx voyager crypto today website briefly went down amid Russian users rushing to the todays crypto website after Binance made the announcement. CommEx’s Russian Telegram group, which had just about 50 members before the announcement, now counts nearly 2,000 users.

“With this sale, Binance fully exits Russia. We have no plans to get back,” a spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph.

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