Binance has decided to temporarily suspend US dollar bank transfers for international users. The decision will come into effect on February 8th. While Binance has not explained the reason for this decision, it has faced banking-related issues in the US. Its international money transfer partner Signature Bank recently said it would only process crypto trades through Binance for users whose accounts have at least $100,000 (about 82 lakh). This has led to Binance looking for another bank transfer partner that could facilitate international or “SWIFT” transfers.
In separate tweets binance as well as its CEO Changpeng Zhao, announced the development for users. Both have skipped explaining the exact motive behind this temporary suspension of services.
According to Zhao, only 0.01 percent of Binance’s monthly active users are affected by this decision, and soon the service will be back up and running.
It’s worth noting that USD bank transfers are used by only 0.01% of our monthly active users.
However, we know this is still a poor user experience and the team is working to resolve this issue quickly. https://t.co/heCfWIomAX
— CZ :large_orange_diamond: Binance (@cz_binance) February 6, 2023
The crypto exchange, early last week, released a list of 144 nations from which USD bank transfers will be affected by its decision. These nations include Algeria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Japan, and Kenya, among others.
“Currently, a number of countries do not support the USD (SWIFT) bank deposit/withdrawal channel. Please note that transfers from the countries listed below will be rejected and sent back to the sender’s wallet. The amount refunded is net of any applicable administration fees. Returns typically take eight to twenty business days depending on the country,” Binance noted post.
The decision prompted the outflow of a large chunk of dollar-pegged stablecoins such as tether And USD coin including CNBC reported citing Arkham Intelligence.
According to DefiLlama, more than $172 million worth of US dollars (roughly Rs. 1,422 billion) have left Binance in the past few days. In the meantime, Binance USA has clarified that this suspension will not affect its users.
Binance’s decision has not impacted its native BNB token.
