- Binance has made KYC mandatory on all accounts
- An email to non-KYC’d account holders informed them that time has run out
- Accounts that don’t submit any KYC information will not be able to deposit crypto from October
Binance has emailed users to remind them that Know Your Customer (KYC) is now mandatory for all accounts on the platform. Citing “evolving global compliance standards”, Binance emailed all users who have not completed KYC that they need to do so imminently or their accounts will be restricted from October 19. Binance has come under severe scrutiny this year for its lack of regulatory oversight, which has left them with no choice but to ramp up their requirements in the face of harsher scrutiny.
Binance Has Had a Troubled 2021
Being the biggest exchange in the cryptocurrency space, Binance was always going to catch the most flak when it came to the question of regulations. Since the platform’s inception in 2017, KYC has not been a mandatory feature, although withdrawal limits have long been imposed on those who don’t submit their details.
2021 has seen a surge of interest in the platform however, with results ranging from UK banks banning their customers from buying crypto on the site to the Thai SEC hitting it with a criminal complaint.
All this has led to Binance taking more steps than ever before to try and keep its head above water. CEO Changpeng Zhao announced in June that the company would shift to becoming a “fully regulated financial institution” with entities in many countries, deploying CipherTrace’s Traveler software to comply with FATF rules on money transfers. Just last week they announced the hiring of IRS investigator Greg Monahan who will head up Binance’s existing anti-money laundering team.
Regulatory Efforts Date Back to 2018
Despite their recent flurry of activity, Binance’s efforts to go legit actually date back to October 2018 when they hired Chainalysis to “help address the challenges at the intersection of cryptocurrencies, regulators and traditional financial institution”. At the time it was thought that this linkup might bring an end to anonymous accounts, but that day took almost three more years to arrive.
Those who don’t submit KYC documents to Binance by October 19 will have their accounts set to ‘withdrawal only’ while trading limitations will also apply for non-KYC accounts.
