Banks To Cut Off Binance From US Banking Systems Binance's banking transactions are the center of immense scrutiny by the SEC, which filed a civil complaint against the exchange and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging both violated U.S. securities laws
By Teena Jose
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
In a US Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against the crypto exchange, it is stated that Binance.US customers are restricted from using US dollars to buy crypto on the platform on the platform as early as June 13, stumbling the exchange's ability to do business in the United States, after both payment and banking partners "signaled their intent to pause USD fiat channels.
Taking to the Twitter, Binance.US has said that, "In an effort to protect our customers and platform, today we are suspending USD deposits and notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023. We encourage customers to take appropriate action with their USD."
Binance's banking transactions are the center of immense scrutiny by the SEC, which filed a civil complaint against the exchange and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging both violated U.S. securities laws.
Reportedly, Zhao's influence over and ownership of the U.S. and international arms of Binance — an international network of offshore holding companies the SEC alleges have moved billions of dollars of assets between themselves — prompted the SEC to file an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order. That restraining order would have frozen U.S. dollars from the exchange anyway.
Considering the aftermath, the company also said that, "Our priority is, and has always been, our customers. We are taking these proactive steps as we–for a time–transition to a crypto-only exchange. To be clear, we maintain 1:1 reserves for all customer assets. Any downtime in processing withdrawals may be the result of elevated volumes and weekend bank closures. Moreover, trading, staking, deposits and withdrawals in crypto remain fully operational."
Earlier on Thursday, US financial regulators reportedly said they supported a freeze on Binance's assets, according to a US SEC filing to a federal court and made public. The exchange's disclosed U.S. banking partners, which have included Axos Bank, Cross River Bank, and the failed Silvergate, Signature, and Silicon Valley Banks, processed billions of dollars in transactions for the U.S. exchange, according to documents Binance provided to the SEC.
BNB, a crypto token native to Binance, fell about 2.5% as of 10:45 a.m. in Singapore on Friday, extending a recent period of underperformance of wider digital-asset markets.