Starting Wednesday, Binance is suspending U.S. dollar transfers, withdrawals, and deposits for international customers.
Despite the setback, Binance is determined to continue entering more markets and rolling out new services.
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Starting February 8, 2023, crypto exchange Binance is suspending U.S. dollar bank transfers. The suspension is temporary, added a spokesperson in a statement to CoinDesk.
“In the interim, all other methods of buying and selling crypto remain unaffected, including bank transfer using one of the other fiat currencies supported by Binance (including euros), buying and selling crypto via credit card, debit card, Google Pay and Apple Pay and via our Binance P2P marketplace.”
Customers will not be able to withdraw or deposit using the U.S. dollar on the exchange. The decision affects international customers, and will not apply to Binance.US, which is regulated by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Although the announcement caused a surge of outflows from Binance’s crypto wallets, the company maintained that it remained “net-positive on net deposits”.
Binance’s native exchange token, BNB, was mostly unaffected by the news, carrying on at around $328.
No specific reason was given for the suspension. Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao commented about the announcement on Twitter, writing that “it is worth noting that USD bank transfers are leveraged by only 0.01% of our monthly active users.” The CEO added, “However, we appreciate that this is still a bad user experience and the team is working on quickly resolving this issue.”
Binance has been unveiling many projects since the beginning of 2023, including the acquisition of South Korean crypto exchange GOPAX, partnership with Georgia, and collaboration with Mastercard in Brazil. As Zhao himself wrote, “Some setbacks were expected from last year’s incidents. Long term, keep building.”
