Binance US, a unit of the company that’s regulated by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said in a tweet that it’s not affected by the suspension
Binance, the largest crypto currency exchange in the world, will suspend U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals, the firm announced on Monday, without citing a reason for the decision.
We are temporarily suspending US dollar bank transfers as of February 8th, a Binance spokesperson told CNBC. Affected customers are being notified directly. The company said ‘0.01 per cent of our MAU leverage US dollar bank transfers’ and further said that ‘we are working hard to restart service as soon as possible.’
Binance US, a unit of the company that is regulated by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said in a tweet that it is not affected by the suspension. So the step applies only to non-U.S. customers who transfer money to or from bank accounts in dollars.
According to data from Arkham Intelligence, there was a sharp rise in outflows from crypto wallets of Binance, as millions of dollar-pegged stablecoins such as tether and USDC flowed to rival exchanges or individual wallets after the announcement.
Binance’s net U.S. dollar outflow was more than $172 million for the day, according to data from DefiLlama. That represents a tiny amount of money for a firm that has crypto assets worth $42.2 billion, according to Arkham.
We are still overwhelmingly net-positive on net deposits, according to the spokesperson. Outflows always tick up when costs begin to level off after a bullish market swing such as we saw last week as some users take profits. Bitcoin gained over 38 per cent in January, its best month since October 2021.
Binance’s exchange token, BNB, was largely unaffected by the news, holding steady at nearly $328.
In late January, Binance said U.S. banking partner Signature Bank had increased U.S. dollar transaction minimums to $100,000. At the time, Binance said Signature had told the exchange that the new minimum applied to all crypto exchange customers.
As for Monday’s suspension, a Binance representative told CNBC that ‘Binance.US has its own banking partners and does not have any issues.’ The main Binance exchange does not serve U.S. users.
