The regulatory climate in Asia has been heated up in recent times with South Korea, and China dishing out rules that have forced crypto trading platforms to shift their operational base from the nations.
Binance cryptocurrency exchange has announced sweeping restrictions and changes to its product offering in Singapore, as the bulk of trading activities will no longer be available to its users in the country.
The exchange, renowned as the world’s biggest in terms of trading volume revealed in an announcement today that as of October 26, “users in Singapore will not be able to access certain functions on Binance.com including fiat deposit services, spot trading of cryptocurrencies, the purchase of cryptocurrencies through fiat channels and liquid swap (‘Regulated Payments Services’).”
The restrictions to trading activities are largely due to the growing regulatory concerns the exchange has been having in the Asian country. Per previous reports, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) flagged Binance to be operating illegally, a move that has forced the trading platform to remove trading pairs and payment options involving the Singapore Dollar (SGD). The latest move is an additional response to pacify regulators.
“As the market leader, Binance constantly evaluates its product and service offerings,” Binance revealed in its latest announcement. “We will be restricting Singapore users in respect of the Regulated Payments Services in-line with our commitment to compliance. Users in Singapore are advised to cease all related trades, withdraw fiat assets and redeem tokens by Wednesday, 2021-10-26 04:00 AM UTC (12:00 PM UTC+8) to avoid potential trading disputes.”
Based on the new resolution, the exchange did not confirm that it will be closing all of its business activities in the country, as skeletal activities like P2P trading may still be available to users.
Encompassing Regulations Exchange Restrictions: Binance and Other Exchanges Shifting Bases
The regulatory climate in Asia has been heated up in recent times with South Korea, and China dishing out rules that have forced crypto trading platforms to shift their operational base from the nations.
Following the September 24 deadline given to exchanges to find a partnership with local banks for easy access to obtain Know Your Customer (KYC) details from platform users. Of the more than 63 trading platforms in South Korea, just about 4 of the top exchanges were able to meet this requirement, pushing other players to announce their exit from the country.
China has also held a very stiff stance with trading platforms as the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) recently announced that all trading activities involving digital currencies are illegal. This serves as a bearish complement to the earlier clampdown on mining activities that resulted in a major plunge in the prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), and altcoins.
The growing concerns of operating in China have forced Huobi Global to halt its trading activities in mainland China while retaining its Hong Kong customers. In the wake of the negative disposition of Chinese market watchdogs to crypto, more exchanges including Binance and OKEx are also exploring the options of ceasing trades to mainland China customers.
next