Binance to Halt Transactions With 11 Crypto Platforms Aug. 23

MakeCryippreferred on

Binance told users on Aug. 14 that it will stop processing transactions involving 16 named crypto platforms, rolling the cutoffs out across three effective dates.

The notice reads as a single compliance update. It is actually two separate governments’ sanctions actions, a U.S. designation over Iran and an EU package targeting Russia-linked platforms, folded into one page and staggered across Binance’s own internal schedule.

Timeline of Binance’s Cutoff Dates

• Aug. 7, 2026: Shelbit (Shelbit General Trading LLC) and Aban Tether Exchange cut off, the same day the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC designated both over IRGC-linked transfers.
• Aug. 13, 2026: A7 Nigeria, A7 Africa and PilotFinance Ltd cut off, three of the 14 platforms the EU individually named in its 21st Russia sanctions package, adopted July 23.
• Aug. 23, 2026: Rapira, Aifory Pro (Sooty Ltd.), ABCeX (Nueva Cryptologia S.A.S DE C.V.), WhiteBird, NoOnecrypto INC., Tradex (Brightum LLC), Monease Ltd, BitPapa, Exnode/Exnode Pay (Arvix), HTX (Huobi Global SA) and EXMO Ltd cut off, the remaining 11 of the same 14 EU-named platforms.

All 14 Russia-linked names were adopted by the EU on the same date, July 23. It split them into two internal batches three weeks later, six days apart.

Government Designation vs. Binance Cutoff

Binance’s latest compliance action targets 16 crypto platforms across three effective dates. The measures span sanctions actions involving Iran and Russia-linked networks.

August 7: Iran

The first two names on the list, Shelbit and Aban Tether Exchange, lost Binance access on Aug. 7, the same day the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated them. Treasury said the exchanges moved money for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: OFAC-linked wallets sent more than $1 million to Shelbit addresses, and more than $2 million flowed back out to IRGC-controlled wallets.

Aban Tether processed transactions tied to several other sanctioned Iranian exchanges. In its press release, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department would “hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat,” whether the money moves in dollars, rials or crypto.

July 23: The EU Names 14 Platforms at Once

The other 14 names on Binance’s list, split across the Aug. 13 and Aug. 23 batches, all trace to a single EU action: the 21st Russia sanctions package, adopted July 23. The package extends the EU’s transaction ban to 14 non-EU crypto platforms and, for the first time, gives the bloc the power to impose a full third-country ban on crypto-asset services.

A7 Nigeria, A7 Africa and PilotFinance Ltd are tied to the A7A5 stablecoin network named in that package. An HTX representative said the exchange had already rejected an application from A7A5 to list on its platform, saying the token failed the company’s own due diligence review.

Aug. 23: The Rest of the EU List, Plus HTX

The remaining 11 EU-named platforms took effect on Binance on Aug. 23: Rapira, Aifory Pro (Sooty Ltd.), ABCeX (Nueva Cryptologia S.A.S DE C.V.), WhiteBird, NoOnecrypto INC., Tradex (Brightum LLC), Monease Ltd, BitPapa, Exnode/Exnode Pay (Arvix), HTX (Huobi Global SA) and EXMO Ltd. Several of these carry additional context beyond the EU listing itself.

Research firm Elliptic identified Bitpapa, ABCeX, Exmo, Rapira and Aifory Pro as enabling ruble-to-crypto conversions, including through USDT-linked virtual cards, that Russian users relied on to move around Western sanctions. Compliance firm TRM Labs has documented earlier UK designations naming HTX, EXMO and BitPapa specifically, a separate government action that predates the EU package. EXMO Ltd appears to have already wound down operations, with UK sanctions having frozen roughly 29 percent of user funds and left customers holding IOU tokens instead of their balances.

HTX has pushed back publicly since the UK action landed in May. An HTX representative said “same brand doesn’t mean same legal entity, and it certainly doesn’t mean the same asset systems,” arguing the sanctions target a specific legal entity rather than the HTX brand as a whole, and that user withdrawals continue to function normally.

Justin Sun, the Tron founder who sits on HTX’s advisory board, said the company believes “in full compliance with all applicable laws and cooperation with law enforcement agencies worldwide.” A blockchain-forensics review found that HTX’s central wallet count on the Tron blockchain jumped from 32 to more than 750 in the two months after the UK sanctions, generating as many as a dozen new addresses in a single day. Vladyslav Kychkyruk of Global Ledger and Nick Smart of Crystal Intelligence, the analysts behind that review, said the pattern is unusual even among sanctioned platforms and makes tracing HTX’s activity harder for investigators.

Two Regimes, One Compliance Page

Every name on Binance’s list now traces to a government designation: OFAC for Shelbit and Aban Tether Exchange, the EU’s 21st package for the other 14. What doesn’t trace to a single regulator’s timeline is Binance’s own rollout. The EU named all 14 platforms on one date, July 23.

Binance split them into two batches three weeks later, Aug. 13 and Aug. 23, without stating why on its own announcement page. Elliptic’s and TRM Labs’ research adds detail on how several of the EU-named platforms operated, but neither firm’s findings are the basis for any of the 16 platforms’ inclusion on Binance’s list.

That gap between the EU’s single adoption date and Binance’s staggered implementation matters against the backdrop of Binance’s own history. The exchange paid $4.3 billion in November 2023 to settle U.S. money-laundering and sanctions charges, the largest such settlement in the industry’s history.

A compliance program built in the aftermath of that settlement has an incentive to move deliberately and in stages on enforcement, rather than implement a foreign regulator’s full list in a single pass. Why Binance chose a two-step rollout for one EU action, rather than one, is not addressed anywhere in its own notice.