On Jan. 18, a group of Russian-speaking Binance clients complained about blocked Binance crypto accounts and not being able to withdraw their funds from the exchange

Crypto currency exchange Binance has been shutting down a number of accounts on the platform in relation to the Bitzlato investigation.

On January 18, some Russian-speaking Binance clients complained about blocked crypto accounts on the exchange and not being able to withdraw their funds from the exchange. They created a Telegram group chat to report the issues, saying that the accounts were blocked without a warning.

The members of the group, counting over 1,000 at present, promptly drew parallels between the blockages and enforcement action against the crypto firm Bitzlato by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). Binance was also listed among the top Bitcoin counterparties of Bitzlato by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Many chat members have openly admitted to using Bitzlato, including incoming and outgoing transactions between Bitzlato and Binance accounts. Some of the users affected by the blockage also expressed outrage and confusion about the action against Bitzlato.

Though I have not been banned anywhere yet, I just lost some on BTC-e, Wex, now it is Bitzlato, but I consider these bans to be lawlessness, one chat member wrote.

According to a spokesperson for Binance, the recent suspensions were indeed connected to Bitzlato.

The representative stated that its compliance and investigations team suspended some users’ accounts from several countries, including those in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) last week in relation to the Bitzlato case.

As per Binance’s spokesperson, the majority of the suspensions were temporary: At the moment, more than 90 per cent of the accounts have been unlocked, users have been notified about this. All funds are safe. Relevant law enforcement contact information has been provided to the affected users.

The crypto exchange also advised users to look at its article on multiple reasons their account might be blocked and what to do in such a situation.