MEXC will withdraw from Russia and Belarus, stating that compliance measures will be tightened

The crypto exchange MEXC has announced plans to cease providing services to users in Russia and Belarus. Affected customers will receive separate instructions regarding closing their positions and withdrawing their funds.

• MEXC has announced plans to cease providing services to users located in Russia and Belarus.
• Affected customers will receive separate instructions regarding the closing of trading positions and the withdrawal of assets.
• The exchange has not yet announced a unified deadline for withdrawing funds, nor has it disclosed the number of affected accounts.
• Bitget updated the list of restricted jurisdictions on October 16th, including Russia and Belarus in it.
• As early as May 2026, MEXC had already restricted trading pairs for certain contracts in these two countries.

In a announcement on October 20th, MEXC stated that this decision stemmed from its global compliance efforts; it also mentioned that users who have not yet received notification can continue to trade in accordance with the existing service terms.

MEXC will notify affected users to close their accounts.

The exchange has not yet set a public deadline for completing withdrawals or closing positions. Instead, account holders with restricted access will receive notifications detailing the applicable procedures and timelines.

MEXC indicates that during this process, customer assets are still protected. However, the announcement does not specify how many accounts are affected, nor does it mention when the service interruption will be completed.

The exchange stated: "Your assets are still safe and secure."

Customers who have not received a termination notice can continue to use their trading services as long as they comply with the platform's service terms. This announcement does not imply that all registered customers in Russia and Belarus will immediately lose access.

The company also advises users with questions about their account status to contact their customer service team, and warns customers to be wary of phishing links and impersonation attempts, stating that its representatives will never request passwords, mnemonics, payments, or asset transfers via private messages.

No specific regulatory orders were mentioned in the announcement. MEXC also did not identify any government agency, sanctions, or licensing decisions as the reasons for withdrawal.

In May, Russia and Belarus already faced restrictions on MEXC contracts.

The announcement in October follows the trading restrictions introduced by the company five months prior.

On May 15th, MEXC announced restrictions on certain contract trading pairs for customers from Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Belarus, which took effect at 07:00 on May 18th UTC.

Under the arrangements in May, users in affected jurisdictions will no longer be able to open new positions in the listed contracts through market orders or limit orders.

Orders placed to open new positions, as well as trailing stop-loss orders, can no longer be executed in these contracts. Customers can still manage and close existing positions, adjust leverage and margin, and use other contract markets not listed above.

The scope of the decisions in October varies. MEXC has now announced the cessation of services to users in Russia and Belarus, but this is subject to notification through separate accounts. Ukraine and Armenia are not mentioned in the latest service updates.

This year, the company has also made other adjustments to its compliance operations. In July, MEXC appointed Robert MacDonald as the Chief Compliance Officer, responsible for overseeing its regulatory strategies and governance.

Prior to this, MEXC also announced a partnership with LSEG Risk Intelligence to incorporate the World-Check screening tool into its compliance system. For more details, please refer to the company's announcement dated July 29th.

Neither of these two announcements indicates that the service restrictions in October were the expected outcome of these compliance measures.

Bitget imposes similar restrictions on Russian and Belarusian users

The decision of MEXC comes shortly after another adjustment to account access made by Bitget. Bitget updated its terms of use on October 16th.

The revised user agreement Bitget lists Russia and Belarus as one of the judicial jurisdictions where services are prohibited. Kazakhstan also appears on the same list, along with several other countries and regions.

According to a report by crypto.news on October 18th, Bitget began notifying some customers to terminate their services after the policy update.

Its notice on October 17 described the account termination as a measure affecting some users. Customers who received the official notice were informed of the operational guidelines regarding account access, closing positions, and withdrawing funds.

Some Bitget customers are facing a deadline on October 21st, however, the exchange has not set this date as a unified deadline for all users. MEXC has not yet announced a similar schedule.

The Bitget protocol defines restricted persons as individuals and entities that reside in, are established in, or operate within prohibited jurisdictions. The notification from MEXC10 month used the phrase 'users from Russia or Belarus', but did not provide a similar definition of eligibility in the announcement.

Cryptocurrency exchanges face stricter sanctions and related transaction controls

In 2026, international cryptocurrency platforms faced restrictions related to Russian entities. Some of these measures targeted specific exchanges, while others affected customer qualifications.

In August, after developments related to sanctions, Binance announced restrictions on transactions involving HTX and another 10 listed cryptocurrency services.

The policy of Binance is aimed at transfers related to specified platforms, whereas the announcement of MEXC involves access to its services by users from two countries. These measures fall under different categories of restrictions.

MEXC has not yet made a public statement regarding whether its decision in October will stem from a specific sanction rule, regulatory directive, or an internal assessment of compliance requirements.

In the service notification, the exchange requires customers to obtain updates through its official website, mobile app, announcement center, and verified social channels. It states that affected users will receive separate notifications with procedural instructions regarding their remaining positions and asset withdrawal.