On Tuesday, something interesting happened that brought the crypto community’s attention over the Australian arm of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Bitcoin was selling at a 20% discount to rival exchanges. It was a clear sign that the holders of the assets were trying to get rid of them.
At that time, Bitcoin was trading at A$43,000 on BTC Markets, an Australia-based exchange, compared to A$34,000 ($23,062) on Binance Australia. Outside Australia, other exchanges like Bitstamp sold Bitcoin at approximately $27,790.
On June 1, a Binance spokesperson said in an email that some Australian users have been withdrawing their AUD holdings from the platform. This was because of the removal of on-ramp services by the payment processor’s banking partner.
On June 1, a Binance spokesperson shared an email about users withdrawing their AUD holdings from the platform.
Consequently, the price of AUD Bitcoin took a hit as they were experiencing less liquidity. He informed me that Binance will be delisting the remaining AUD pairs and discontinuing fiat off-ramp services.
Earlier this month, Binance shared one more piece of news regarding its payments. It said that some of its customers in Australia won’t be able to use its deposit/withdrawal service. The company attributed it to the termination of services provided by a third party.
The company informed about its plans to close its Australian derivatives due to the closure of financial services. According to them, it occurred due to a regulatory probe into the operations.
Binance, the biggest crypto exchange that handles around 70% of trading volume, has been in a legal battle with regulatory bodies across the globe.
Initially, it only dealt with crypto to avoid a centralized banking system. But later on, it gained more customers and expanded its manpower. As a result, it required support from conventional banks to process payments. Binance tied up with Silvergate Bank, a US lending body that went bankrupt in March.
The same month, New York’s chief financial regulator took over Signature Bank, a crypto-friendly institution. And the coincidence was, Binance was also
Signature Bank’s one of the clients.
As per the report published by Reuters, Binance struggled to acquire bank accounts for its small units. Most major banks declined the bank’s request for opening accounts over compliance issues and companies’ sources of funds.
