Binance May End Relationships With US Firms Due To Regulatory Pressure

February 18, 2023 11:56 am Comments

It was just announced that the largest crypto exchange in the world, Binance, is considering ending all of its US businesses due to regulatory pressure.

This was one of the major concerns for crypto investors as many had expected that the SEC would decide to be more aggressive against the industry after the events that had unfolded last year.

The SEC has been probing Binance now for a while along with many other regulatory entities within the United States which makes it hard for the company to do business within the US markets.

Whether or not the decision is final is still to be determined, but the news will ultimately affect many investors within the United States and the crypto market as a whole.

After all, Binance is still the largest exchange when measured by trading volume and primarily serves US customers through its subsidiary called “Binance.us”.

Watcher.guru reports:

The SEC has not been the only regulatory entity investigating the actions of Binance. Bloomberg notes that they are joined in their investigation by the “Commodity futures Trading Commission, Justice Department, and the Internal Revenue Service.”

Subsequently, Binance is considering, “whether to sever ties with intermediary firms such as banks and service firms,” following the probes. Furthermore “reassessing venture-capital investments in the US,” according to sources.

Among the US-based stablecoins under consideration to be delisted by Binance is Circle USD stablecoin, a source told Bloomberg.

Conversely, Binance Holdings is not permitted to serve crypto users in the United States. Alternatively, Binance.US is a smaller change that “claims to be independent and said it has no plans to leave the US.”

Although the company has revealed that its relationships with many US firms may soon end, it also clarified that the exchange will not be delisting any crypto assets that are based in the US.

After all, crypto has no borders which has been shown by the fact that there are still many exchanges around the world that list XRP despite it being under a lawsuit by the SEC.

Before this news revealed, it had been previously announced that the the Binance stable coin BUSD had been accused by the SEC as being a security.

This shows that this is not the first time that the SEC has targeted the company and it seems that the agency and becoming more and more aggressive as time goes on.

The fact that a stable coin would be accused of being a security is quite the drastic claim which further increases concerns about regulatory roadblocks for crypto within the US.

CoinDesk concludes:

The crypto exchange has been investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

U.S. regulators have been taking heavy enforcement action against crypto players in the last couple of weeks, leaving Binance bracing itself for SEC fines after crypto exchange Kraken was forced to shut down its staking service in the U.S. and pay a $30 million fine.

Binance’s U.S. customers are serviced by Binance.US, which claims to operate completely independently and says it has no plans to leave the U.S., according to Bloomberg.
Earlier this month, Binance said it was temporarily suspending U.S. dollar bank transfers by its customers.

“Like every other blockchain company, we are conducting a careful cost-benefit analysis and will pivot our business as necessary to protect our global user base,” a Binance spokesman said in an email to CoinDesk.

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