By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
Binance has confirmed the news, stating it would shift its focus to its main products and long-term goals.
Binance has decided to close its buy-and-sell service Binance Connect amid challenges its provider faced with support for card payments. Starting from August 16, Binance Connect is no longer available.
Binance has confirmed the news, the announcement has also been revealed by BNB Chain-based platform Biswap in a tweet.
Dear Biswappers,
The Biswap team keeps abreast of the latest DeFi news and aims to inform you right away.
After a thorough consideration, @binance has made a difficult decision to disable @Binance_Connect on 15 August due to its provider closing the supporting card payments… pic.twitter.com/HcooyLn4sg
— Biswap (@Biswap_Dex) August 15, 2023
As Binance has stated, it will shift its focus to its main products and long-term goals.
Binance representative commented:
“We periodically review our products and services to ensure that our resources continue to be focused on core efforts that align with our long-term strategy. In the last six years, Binance has grown from being an exchange to a global blockchain ecosystem with multiple business lines. We consistently adapt and modify our business approach in response to changing market and user needs.”
Launched in March 2022, Binance Connect (formerly Bitfinity) was connecting traditional finance to world-leading and emerging blockchains, transforming how businesses and people send and receive money around the world. Its aim was to create an open, financial world where people from all walks of life and businesses, big or small, can participate and realize their financial goals.
Serving as the official fiat-to-crypto payments provider for Binance, Binance Connect supported as many as 50 cryptocurrencies and major payment methods, including Visa and Mastercard. The service was also supposed to be the hub for the exchange’s non-fungible tokens (NFTs) checkout solution. The feature was not added.
Binance’s Legal Battles
One of the world’s largest crypto exchanges is currently facing challenges caused by regulatory scrutiny around its business. Earlier this year, Binance faced lawsuits filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accusing the company of misleading investors through opaque business practices. The violations included operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies, misrepresenting trading controls and oversight on the Binance.US platform, as well as the unregistered offer and sale of securities. In total, SEC filed more than a dozen charges against Binance this year so far.
According to SEC, Binance has been manipulating its Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes to conceal its US customer base and avoid regulatory oversight. Besides, the company has been accused of encouraging its US customers to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to hide their locations and bypass restrictions. Out of Binance’s 62 million global customers, only 25 million had submitted KYC documentation.
European regulators turned out to be not really welcoming as well. In June, Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) reportedly denied the Binance exchange’s application for a crypto custody license. Besides, Binance withdrew its application with the Financial Market Authority of Austria. Earlier this year, Binance also exited the Netherlands after failing to secure regulatory approval, as well as abandoned its Cyprus and UK registrations.