Under the amended user agreement dated October 16, new trades, orders and subscriptions for users in the three countries will become unavailable from 10:00 Moscow time on October 18. Clients are told to close all positions and withdraw assets by 10:00 Moscow time on October 21, after which login access will be closed. The change was first spotted by the Interfax news agency.
Any positions still open after that point will be closed automatically, the exchange said. Users who fail to withdraw funds in time are promised personal notifications by email, in the app or via push messages, setting out further steps, deadlines and the procedure for withdrawing money.
The Insider, which reviewed the updated agreement, found that the exchange also explicitly bans circumventing geographic restrictions via VPN. Clause 8.6 states that access to services, including viewing active orders and open positions, may be blocked for users in prohibited jurisdictions.
A further provision covers assets held in blocked accounts. Under clause 8.2, Bitget may in certain circumstances restrict cryptocurrency withdrawals, forcibly close positions, sell assets to settle a client's obligations and convert funds into other cryptocurrencies supported by the platform. The exchange did not separately explain the criteria for applying the new restrictions to citizens of the three countries who live permanently abroad.
Alongside Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, the list of prohibited jurisdictions includes the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Japan, Singapore, Iran, North Korea and a number of other countries and territories. Bitget's official terms of use say the list is drawn up to comply with regulatory requirements and sanctions regimes.
Kommersant noted that the exchange's initial statement on social media did not directly name the users whose access would be restricted. It said the move was "a one-time measure concerning only certain users." The company did not say how many clients would be affected or how much cryptocurrency is held in their accounts.
The Insider noted that the new restrictions come three weeks after a large-scale hack of the exchange. On September 24, attackers withdrew cryptocurrency worth about $351.6 million from Bitget, the largest confirmed crypto theft since the start of the year. The exchange temporarily suspended withdrawals, and its CEO, Gracie Chen, suggested North Korean hackers were behind the attack. That version has not been definitively confirmed. The company said its own protection fund would cover user losses. By October 2, the exchange had completed the restoration of previously suspended operations.
Analysts note that Bitget continued serving the Russian market for a long time after 2022, when some competitors, such as Binance, had already left it.