A series of crises for Binance's global business, including the suspension of Russian Comex operations and the threat of being blocked in the Philippines

CommEx, the local cryptocurrency exchange that acquired Binance's Russian operations, announced that it will begin a phased shutdown process on March 25, suspending new signups, Binance asset transfers, and fiat and crypto deposits. Comex will phase out its crypto futures, peer-to-peer marketplace, and spot trading services, and will also shut down its official website on May 10. Users who hold assets on Comex after May 10 will be charged a custody fee of 1% of their assets. Binance announced last year that it was selling all of its Russian operations to CommEX and pulling out of Russia altogether, but many of the key members of the CommEX team are former Binance employees, raising suspicions in the industry that Binance is behind CommEX.

In another crisis, the Philippines' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to block Binance's website. The SEC recently approved a request from the Philippines' National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to block access to Binance's website and related platforms. "Binance offers services such as cryptocurrency deposits and leveraged products without a license, posing a threat to the safety and security of Filipino users," SEC Commissioner Emilio Aquino wrote in a letter to the NTC. Last December, the SEC chairman said the ban on Binance would take effect in March this year, and the NTC recently blocked unregistered cryptocurrency exchange websites such as MiTrade and OctaFX.