The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has helped Russia arrest one of its own citizens for supporting the Ukrainian military. Using information provided by the exchange, Russian authorities arrested 49-year-old Russian IT specialist Yuriy Bielenkyi, who was detained in September 2025 and is now being held in a Russian prison awaiting trial, Reuters reports.
The information was later included in the criminal case against him. Russian investigators also asked Binance to identify other people who had transferred funds to a wallet used to collect donations for Ukrainian soldiers.
What information can be obtained through Binance?
Journalists obtained documents showing that in October 2025, Russian investigators requested Binance’s transaction history for Bielenkyi.
The exchange provided information about transfers to Ukrainian cryptocurrency wallets. Russian law enforcement received not only transaction data but also the user’s personal information, including his date of birth, address, phone number, passport details, a copy of his Russian passport, and his Bulgarian residence permit.
Passing the buck
Crypto-regulation lawyer Mike Bystrov told journalists that Binance was not necessarily required to hand over the data to Russia. If Bielenkyi was registered with Binance as an EU customer, he could have been covered by rules that significantly restrict the transfer of personal data to countries that do not provide an adequate level of data protection.
Binance disagreed. The company said it cooperates with lawful law-enforcement requests in different countries, but that government authorities themselves decide how to use the information they receive.
Meanwhile, the European Data Protection Board, an EU body, declined to comment.
Previous precedents involving Alexei Navalny
Reuters previously reported that in 2021, Binance’s regional head met with representatives of Russia’s financial-monitoring agency, who wanted to help identify customers making Bitcoin donations to Alexei Navalny.
At the time, Binance told Reuters that Russian authorities had never approached the company regarding the anti-Kremlin activist, who died in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.
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