Binance.US suspends USD deposits after regulators’ crackdown

Binance is a crypto exchange.Just days after US authorities sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao, US announced on Thursday that it is halting US dollar deposits and that its banking partners are getting ready to halt fiat currency withdrawal channels as early as June 13.

The biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world’s US division announced the shift in a tweet at 10:33 p.m. EDT (0233 GMT) on Thursday, adding that it is doing so as part of “proactive steps” toward temporarily becoming a crypto-only exchange.

The exchange informed its clients in a notification that trading, staking, deposits, and withdrawals in cryptocurrency will all continue to be completely functional.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and its founder Zhao on Monday. The following day, the SEC also sued Coinbase (COIN.O), the biggest US cryptocurrency exchange.

Following the collapse of FTX last year, the revelations signal a major intensification of a crackdown on the sector by US authorities.

Earlier on Thursday, according to a US SEC petition to a federal court that was made public, US financial officials stated their support for a freeze on Binance’s assets.

“Binance.US is a far smaller company than its global organization. A halt in withdrawals would undoubtedly cause or provoke a lot of anxiety and fear, according to Matthew Dibb, COO of Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform Stack Funds.

But because the SEC and other officials have been criticizing Binance day in and day out for the last week, this was quite predictable.

Binance.The SEC’s stance on cryptocurrencies is “extremely aggressive and intimidating,” the US said in a tweet, adding that it has caused issues between the exchange and its banking partners.

It will probably take many years to resolve this conflict; it won’t be resolved in the next two or three months, according to Dibb.