The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, will suspend US dollar deposits and withdrawals. The company said this on Monday without providing a reason for this decision. As per reports, they temporarily suspend dollar bank transfers as of February 8. And the affected customers are notified directly. The company further said that 0.01 percent of their monthly active users leverage dollar bank transfers and that they are working hard to restart services as soon as possible.
Binance US said in a tweet that the suspension does not affect it. Thus, the move is only for non-US customers who transfer money from bank accounts in dollars. Data from Arkham Intelligence points out that there has been a sharp rise in the outflows from Binance’s crypto wallets following the announcement. This was as millions of dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDC and tether flowed to the rival exchanges or individual wallets.
The net US dollar outflow of Binance was over $ 172 million for the day. This is based on data from DefiLlama. But, according to Arkham, that represents a small amount of money for a company that has dollars 42.2 billion worth of crypto assets. The spokesperson said that they are overwhelmingly net-positive on net deposits. For example, outflows always rise when prices start to level off. This follows a bullish market swing, as they saw last week, as some users take profits. Bitcoin rose above 38 percent in January. And it is its best month since October 2021.
The exchange token of Binance, BNB, was unaffected by the news. It was holding steady at around dollars 328. In late January, Binance said the US banking partner Signature Bank increased the US dollar transaction minimums to $ 100,000. At that time, Binance said that Signature Bank had told the exchange that the new minimum was supposed to be for all crypto exchange customers. Explaining Monday’s suspension, a Binance representative had said that Binance.US has its own banking partners. And it does not have any issues.
The main Binance exchange does not provide US users. Binance said customers could use other fiat currencies or payment methods to purchase crypto. The spokesperson said that the small number affected will have a new partner to announce for those users in the next couple of weeks.