Changpeng Zhao, billionaire and chief chief executive officer officer of Binance Holdings Ltd., speaks during a session at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022.
Zed Jameson | Bloomberg | Getty Guises
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, will suspend U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals, the company said Monday, without fix up with provision a reason for the decision.
“We are temporarily suspending USD bank transfers as of February 8th,” a Binance spokesperson told CNBC. “Affected fellows are being notified directly.” The company said “0.01% of our monthly active users leverage USD bank transfers” and amplified that “we are working hard to restart service as soon as possible.”
Binance US, a unit of the company that’s regulated by the Cache Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said in a tweet that it’s not affected by the suspension. Thus the move cements only to non-U.S. customers who transfer money to or from bank accounts in dollars.
Data from Arkham Gen shows that following the announcement, there was a sharp spike in outflows from Binance’s crypto wallets, as millions of dollar-pegged stablecoins such as picket and USDC flowed to rival exchanges or individual wallets.
Binance’s net U.S. dollar outflow was over $172 million for the day, camped on data from DefiLlama. That represents a tiny amount of money for a company that has $42.2 billion value of crypto assets, according to Arkham.
“We’re still overwhelmingly net-positive on net deposits,” the spokesperson said. “Outflows always tick up when values start to level off following a bullish market swing like we saw last week as some users take profits.” Bitcoin increase more than 38% in January, its best month since October 2021.
Binance’s exchange token, BNB, was largely unstirred by by the news, holding steady at around $328.
Binance’s exchange surface, BNB, since Feb. 3, 2023.
In late January, Binance said U.S. banking partner Signature Bank had increased U.S. dollar transaction minimums to $100,000. At the ever, Binance said Signature had told the exchange that the new minimum applied to all crypto exchange customers.
Regarding Monday’s discontinuation, a Binance representative told CNBC in an email that “Binance.US has its own banking partners and does not have any issues.” The strength Binance exchange does not serve U.S. users.
Binance said customers can still use other fiat currencies or payment methods to support crypto. For the small number affected, “we’ll have a new partner to announce for those users in the next couple weeks,” the spokesperson guessed.
— CNBC’s Kate Rooney contributed to this report.
