• Binance has announced that it will temporarily suspend US dollar withdrawals and deposits for international customers starting February 8.
• The decision affects only non-US customers who transfer money to or from bank accounts in dollars, while other transfer methods are unaffected.
• Binance is looking for a new partner to process its SWIFT payments due to challenges with its banking partner Signature Bank raising transaction minimums for dollar transfers.
Binance Temporarily Halts US Bank Transfers
Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, announced that it will be temporarily suspending US dollar withdrawals and deposits for international customers beginning February 8. The suspension only impacts a small proportion of users, but all other methods of buying and selling crypto remain unaffected.
Suspension Impact on Non-US Customers
The suspension applies only to non-U.S. customers who transfer money to or from bank accounts in dollars, while other transfer methods are not affected by this decision. This means that Binance US, a unit of the company regulated by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, is not impacted by the suspension either.
Reason Behind Suspension
Binance is facing banking challenges in the United States due to their banking partner Signature Bank raising transaction minimums for dollar transfers last month – they now require users with USD bank accounts over $100,000 before processing trades with them. This led Binance looking for a new partner to process their SWIFT payments as Signature Bank intended to reduce its exposure to clients operating in the crypto space by shedding about $10 billion of deposits.
Federal Home Loan Banks Support Crypto Banks
Signature Bank and Silvergate are two of the biggest crypto banks which were hit hard by the crypto meltdown last year that saw around $2 trillion worth of value wiped out of the market. Both banks have received billions in loans from the Federal Home Loan Banks following this collapse which was originally designed to support housing finance and community investment. Signature Bank received nearly $10 billion in loans from its local home-loan bank during Q4 2022 while Silvergate received $3 billion during Q1 2021 as part of this system’s support towards these banks after losing significant amounts during this cryptocurrency market crash period
Binance Working Hard To Restart Service Soon
Despite these challenges, Binance remains confident that they are working hard towards restarting their service soon and have encouraged their users impacted by this suspension not to worry as they work towards resolving any issues caused by this decision quickly and efficiently so users can go back to trading without any problems soon enough!