- Binance.US has announced that bank deposits and withdrawals will cease in the coming days
- The platform’s banking partners have pulled out following this week’s legal action by the SEC
- Binance.US will be crypto-only “for a time”
Beleaguered crypto exchange Binance.US has been forced to ditch fiat payment options after its payment processors pulled out in the wake of its legal entanglements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Binance.US called the tactics used by the SEC “extremely aggressive and intimidating” as it reported to users that its banking partners have “not been spared”, leading to it informing users that USD deposits have been suspended and withdrawals will follow in four days’ time. Binance.US will move to a crypto-only exchange “for a time”, although how long it can survive with such pressures on it remains to be seen.
Binance.US Endures Week From Hell
Binance.US has had a rough week, starting with the SEC accusing it of selling unlicensed securities and calling for it and its parent company to be banned, which was followed by a demand by the SEC that its assets be frozen. The news has garnered global attention and led to Binance.US announcing a plan to delist 40 cryptocurrency pairs following the SEC’s allegations. However, it rowed back following customer feedback and only delisted 10 advanced trading pairs instead.
Things haven’t improved for the exchange, however, with this week’s lawsuits clearly having a knock-on effect on the exchange’s banking partners. In a tweet yesterday, Binance.US accused the SEC of making “unjustified civil claims” against it which it intends to “vigorously defend”, but noted that it will no longer be able to offer fiat banking facilities:
The SEC has taken to using extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics in its pursuit of an ideological campaign against the American digital asset industry. https://t.co/AZwoBOgsqS and our business partners have not been spared in the use of these tactics, which has created… pic.twitter.com/rlIe6swIoY
— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) June 9, 2023
Payment Processors Continue to Abandon Binance
This news comes in the wake of UK and Australian fiat deposit and withdrawals mechanisms also being heavily disrupted as banks and payment processors fear becoming entangled with Binance, which they feel could harm their reputations.
Binance says it will be forced to “for a time…transition to a crypto-only exchange,” although the odds of it finding a new banking partner in its current predicament are low, suggesting that its crypto-only operations may last longer than it would like.
