Binance is on track to shut down derivatives trading in Europe, beginning with Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. The global cryptocurrency exchange is facing continued regulatory scrutiny worldwide, thereby choosing to curb services to respond to the current issues undermining its progress. The end of the week has seen the company’s only option being to partly shut down derivatives trading.
On Friday, the exchange officially announced that derivatives trading would get suspended in Europe, with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands feeling the first pinch. According to Binance, users from these three nations cannot open new futures accounts on the company’s platform effective immediately.
We’re continually evaluating our products and working with our partners to meet our users’ needs. Today we’re announcing that we plan to wind down our derivatives products offerings across the European region, commencing with the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy.
The company further wrote, “The European region is a very important market for Binance, and it is taking proactive steps towards harmonizing crypto regulations, which is a positive sign for the industry.” The exchange does not actively market derivatives and futures products locally, this might be the reason they are choosing to scale down access to these products in the region.
Binance also noted that this latest move aligns with their commitment to maintain open and constructive dialogues with global regulators when it comes to meeting local requirements.
The latest suspensions to certain services at the company are due to the new trading restrictions the company faces from global regulators, including those from Italy and Germany. The Italian Companies and Exchange Commission said in mid-July that Binance Group and its affiliated companies were not authorized to offer investment services or operate within Italy. Recent months have seen other global financial authorities from nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States issue similar warnings to the exchange.
The company remains committed to collaborate with regulators and offer its services in a legal manner; this might be the reason the company is actively limiting some of the services it offers. The most notable changes experienced this week include delisting margin trading pairs for EUR, GBP, and AUD, and reducing maximum leverage positions from 125x to 20x. Users should also expect the company to cut daily Bitcoin withdrawal limits in August from 2 BTC to 0.06 BTC.
The company’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, is optimistic of the exchange’s future, regardless of the regulatory challenges it is facing worldwide. Last week he disclosed that their U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, Binance U.S., that operates separately from Binance is looking at the IPO route.
Image courtesy of pixabay
Don’t worry, we hate spam too
one weekly digest, just the important stuff.
