Binance has announced a crypto card for refugees from Ukraine. They can get a special Binance Refugee card with 75 BUSD monthly.
Binance exchange experiences some nuisances in the new legal Ukrainian crypto industry.
The cause is that the local competitive exchange tries to blame Binance for playing along with Russia.
Anyways, one of the world-leading crypto platforms shows its support to Ukrainian customers and keeps helping them.
Earlier Binance removed any fees for Ukrainians who withdrew fiat (UAH) from the platform. The problem with some Ukrainian banks appeared, but in fact, it works most of the time.
Now the exchange has launched a special Binance Refugee Visa card for Ukrainians in Europe. But we can’t say for sure whether it will work well.
Here’s why.
Binance card for refugees from Ukraine – terms and conditions
On April 25 Binance announced a special Visa card for refugees from Ukraine who flee to the European Economic Area (EEA). That’s most of the EU countries besides some Balkans and Switzerland.
Seems like it’s a regular Binance Visa card that can convert users’ crypto assets to Euro. And also allows you to pay with it at any Visa-supported spot.
Generally, this Visa card can be physically issued only in some countries. And you can just leave your request to get the card on the Binance website. In other countries you will have to use electronic card with online banking.
Now Ukrainians in EEA are welcome to get the card and some additional benefits. The most obvious of them is 225 BUSD tokens within the three 75 BUSD monthly payouts. BUSD is Binance’s own stablecoin pegged to US Dollar.
Binance card for refugees from Ukraine also promises 0.1%-8% cash back for every purchase. Not to mention that such a card gives an easy way to transfer cryptocurrency between family members separated by war.
How to get the Binance card for refugees from Ukraine
First of all you will need a Binance account.
Ukrainian refugees can use either their existing Binance account or create a new one.
But all applicants have to fill in the data about their Ukrainian place of residence, and current address in EEA.
Note that your Ukrainian address can’t be changed and you may be asked to provide additional documents about your residence in Ukraine.
It will take 2-8 weeks for the card to be delivered. But after verifying your account you can use the card for online payments even while the physical card is still on its way.
And there are also Google Pay and Samsung Pay features supported.
The card works like an additional wallet on your Binance account. You can transfer crypto there and then use it for direct payments.
All the crypto you transfer to the card will be automatically converted to Euro during the payments.
Are there any pitfalls?
Of course, there are. Before you get too excited about Binance’s incredible generosity, try to pass the verification process for your account. There are two steps – KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure and the thing that Binance affectionately calls Proof-of-Address.
At the time of writing it remains unclear will all the applicants for Binance card for refugees from Ukraine will have to pass both procedures. According to the first reviews from ordinary users, such a verification is mandatory.
As for KYC it’s kind of simple and isn’t likely to get you into trouble. It’s a pretty standard and straightforward procedure involving giving your credentials and possibly your photo. Every crypto exchange requires some kind of KYC procedure.
But Proof-of-Address is a different kind of trouble.
How to pass Proof-of-Address verification for Binance card?
Having such a requirement for Binance card for refugees from Ukraine the crypto exchange shows its absolutely ignorance about the circumstances these people currently got into.
The thing is that Binance requires users to upload copies of documents showing their names which clearly indicate residential address in Ukraine prior to forced immigration. The documents have to be dated withing three months before the date of submission.
Valid documents might include municipality bill for utility services such as electricity, water, sewerage,
Internet service bill, bank statements etc. Mobile phone bills are not acceptable, by the way.
But the most interesting thing is that Binance requires that the name on the document must be the same as the ID submitted to the account.
So basically a woman who went from Ukraine to, say, Poland with her children must upload to Binance’s website a copy of some bills from Ukraine. Many of those women left Ukraine at the end of February, just two months ago. It’s hard to imagine many of them took their utility services bills with them. Moreover, many of them wouldn’t have any utility bill at all with their name on it just because in many families bills are assigned to a husband, for example.
We are sincerely hoping that when many Ukrainian refugees start to apply for the Binance crypto card, the exchange authorities will see the problem with registration procedure and manage to soften it somehow. Otherwise all that Binance card for Ukrainian refugees might prove to be just a useless PR campaign.
What about free money for Ukrainian refugees?
Yes, nominally Ukrainian refugees can get 75 BUSD monthly during a three-month residence in EEA. But submitting an application for the Binance card does not automatically grant you access to these donations.
After filling in all the account details Binance can ask to verify your person with some local non-profit organization like Palyanytsya or Rotary.
There you can also be asked to provide additional details like your bank accounts or Ukrainian residence documents.
“We have an obligation to help people affected by the war who were forced to leave their homes. The Binance Refugee Card will allow Ukrainians to receive assistance from Binance and other charitable organizations,” said Binance General Manager in Ukraine Kirill Khomyakov.
But still, it’s unknown whether all Ukrainian refugees in EEA will be able to get the card and especially financial help due to the abundance of bureaucracy in Binance.
The case with $10 million donated
The problem with Ukrainians getting Binance financial help goes a bit wider than the 75 BUSD with the refugee card.
Earlier Binance announced a $10 million donation to the Ukrainian charity organization. But the head of the biggest Ukrainian crypto exchange KUNA Mykhailo Chobanian claimed that Binance had not transferred its promised $10 million donations to Ukraine.
“They said that they donated $10 million to the Ukrainian government. Well, I haven’t seen that $10 million. No one knows where that went,” he said.
Binance responded that they allocated $10 million for humanitarian work in Ukraine. With the list of nongovernmental organizations that got their money.
And that’s funny that Binance’s spokesperson also blamed Chobanian’s KUNA exchange for working with the Russian market. Particularly for ‘exchanging millions of dollars daily’ for such companies as CryptoXchange and Bizlato.
So all that seems like the big crypto competition for the users’ loyalty. Especially the Ukrainian ones.
Sources: Binance
