Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will temporarily cease accepting dollar transactions on its platform beginning Wednesday, February 8th.
According to a company statement obtained by EntrepreneurNG, the development will only affect a small percentage of its users. Meanwhile, Binance stated that efforts are being made to address the issue that has caused the disruption.
Only a small part of our users will be impacted by this and we are working diligently to reinstate the service as quickly as possible. All other cryptocurrency purchasing and selling procedures are unaffected, said part of the statement by the company.
More details
A spokesperson for the company further noted that;
In the interim, all other ways to buy and sell cryptocurrency remain unaffected, including bank transfers using one of the other fiat currencies supported by Binance (including euros), buying and selling cryptocurrency via credit card, debit card, Google Pay, and Apple Pay, as well as via our Binance P2P marketplace.
Although only 0.01% of active users trade in US dollars, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao said on Twitter, “we appreciate that this is still a horrible user experience, and the team is working on fast correcting this issue.”
In the meantime, the restriction has had no impact on Binance US, which operates separately. Also, dollar deposits and withdrawals continue to work.
What you should know
In the United States, the cryptocurrency exchange has encountered financial difficulties. Signature Bank, its SWIFT transfer partner, announced on January 21st that as of February 1st, it would only accept trades from users with USD bank accounts worth more than $100,000. The bank previously stated that it would significantly reduce deposits from cryptocurrency users.
Furthermore, on February 1, Binance published a list of 144 countries where all USD SWIFT transfers would be halted.
Binance stated at the time that it was looking for a new SWIFT partner and that all SWIFT transactions involving other currencies, as well as trades in USD using credit or debit cards, would be accepted.
The digital exchange recently launched a tool to help users determine their tax liabilities on cryptocurrency transactions, as governments look for ways to avoid losing money from the sector.
According to the specifics, the free tool can enable and assist in reporting up to 100,000 transactions. Users in Canada and France would be the first to have access to it, followed by users in other countries.
