Binance DEX to geoblock users from 29 countries; CEO clarifies Binance.org is barring users, not the blockchain

The Binance.org website, which is used to gain access to the Binance DEX trading platform, will begin blocking users based in 29 countries, according to the cryptocurrency exchange website’s terms of services.

Potentially affected users are informed via a message that appears when accessing the platform from one of the regions. The restriction, which will take effect on July 1 (UTC 00:00), will affect users from the United States, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Bruma, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Cote d'Ivoire, the Crimea region of Ukraine, Croatia, Cuba, Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

The pop-up warns that users with IP addresses from the aforementioned countries, regardless of their actual location, will be blocked from trading and accessing the wallet interface via the website.

However, a link to a list of wallets that support Binance Chain (BNB) mainnet is provided, offering geoblocked users alternatives for holding, managing, and trading assets on Binance DEX.

The latest news received online criticisms from users. To clarify, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that the geoblock of users is only applicable to a single website in www.binance.org and clarified that Binance DEX itself is not blocking users based on their location.

“Today, there are at least a dozen mature wallets supporting Binance DEX already. The geoblock is not for Binance DEX, which is maintained by a number of nodes operated by independent parties,” Zhao told CCN. “The geoblock is only for one website (www.binance.org), operated by one of our affiliates. Whether a centralized party decides to geoblock a region depends on their compliance policies I guess. ”

Twitter user @truthurtm also provided a list of wallets with all support trading in a tweet. The suggested platforms include Trust – Crypto Wallet, Zel Core, Cool Wallet, Math Wallet, Infinito Wallet, Coinomi Wallet, Meet.One, Magnum Wallet, and Ellipal Wallet.

The news follows Binance's recent partnership with Cred, a leading platform for crypto lending and borrowing, to promote the decentralization of finance. Under the partnership, the licensed lender will move a portion of its ERC20 LBA tokens (Lend-Borrow-Asset, Cred’s native tokens) to Binance Chain.