Binance.​US enables free Web3 domain creation for American users

Binance.US enables free Web3 domain creation for American users

April 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance.us

Binance users based in the United States are now able to create Web3 domains that serve as digital identities in a new partnership with Unstoppable Domains.

Binance.US users will soon be able to set up decentralized domains that will serve as digital identities across the Web3 ecosystem through a new partnership with Unstoppable Domains.

The new offering will allow users to mint “.BinanceUS” domains, providing users with easily understandable names for cryptocurrency wallets to buy, sell and transfer cryptocurrency in the Binance.US app. These unique domains also serve as a digital identity across compatible Web3 services, applications and platforms.

Binance.US and Unstoppable Domains announced the launch of the service on April 26 and it will go live in May. Binance.US domains are minted on the Polygon blockchain, which allows the generation of decentralized domains without gas fees or renewal costs.

The partnership will also allow Unstoppable Domains users to use Binance.US to withdraw cryptocurrencies to various Unstoppable Domains addresses, which include .crypto, .nft and .x domains.

A statement from Binance.US Business Development Vice President Nandini Maheshwari, shared with Cointelegraph, highlighted the provision of digital identity ownership as a key factor in the partnership with Unstoppable and Polygon:

“Increasing accessibility to Web3 while maintaining a safe and secure ecosystem for customers is at the core of Binance.US’s mission.”

Unstoppable Domains will be responsible for custodying all .BinanceUS domains, which can only be created through the Binance.US app.

The decentralized domain service provider has partnered with a number of Web3, blockchain and cryptocurrency companies over the past year. This includes a partnership with Polygon to provide the ability to mint “.polygon” Web3 domains. Unstoppable also provided an avenue for 1inch Network decentralized finance (DeFi) users to send cryptocurrencies to Web3 domain addresses in November.

Unstoppable Domains and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) have seen burgeoning user numbers through 2022 and 2023 as demand for Web3 services continues to grow. American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase tapped as its decentralized domain name partner in September 2022, providing users with free.cb.id usernames like ‘cointelegraph.cb.id’ to replace alpha-numeric cryptocurrency wallet addresses.

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Binance.us

Binance’s market dominance fell largely due to its decision to end zero-fee trading for some trading pairs and not the CFTCs lawsuit, says Kaiko.

The dominance of cryptocurrency exchange Binance in trading volume market share has slipped over the past two weeks following a lawsuit from the United States commodities regulator and its decision to halt some zero-fee trading.

In an April 4 newsletter blockchain analytics platform Kaiko reported Binance “lost 16% market share of trade volume,” with its market share at 54% as of the end of Q1.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance on March 27 alleging it flouted regulatory compliance through violations of derivatives laws by offering trading to U.S. customers without registering.

Kaiko said Binance still takes in more volume than the rest of its combined competitors but its March 15 decision to end zero-fee spot and margin trading for 13 trading pairs including BNB (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading pairs with multiple fiat currencies and stablecoins largely contributed to the firm’s downfall.

“Overall, Binance’s excess volume largely vanished with the end of zero-fee trading, which was reflected in an even dispersal in market share among the remaining exchanges,” Kaiko reported.

*Binance’s market share trading volume amongst the top centralized exchanges fell to 54% by the end of the first quarter. Source:* *Kaiko*

Kaiko explained part of this fall was alleviated by its U.S. arm, Binance.US, which managed to triple its market share over the quarter from 8% to 24%.

Binance didn’t fall excessively in every domain though, the exchange managed to maintain its derivatives dominance, only giving up 2% market share over the last quarter.

Kaiko explained that the fall in trading volume figures was influenced mostly by the end of zero-fee spot trading as opposed to the CFTC lawsuit:

“The trend is quite different when looking at derivatives volumes: Binance only lost about 2% of market share for perpetual futures trade volume. This suggests that the majority of market share was lost purely due to the end of zero-fee spot trading, rather than trepidations around a lawsuit.”

The market share fall to 54% comes as Binance was one of the “big winners” of the FTX fiasco which saw its market share in trading volume rise to 65% during the last quarter of 2022:

“Binance’s market share increased from 50% to 65% after November 2022, while OKX saw its market share increase from under 10% to 17%. Bybit and the three smaller exchanges Huobi, Bitmex and Deribit, on the other hand, saw their market share decline.”

Over the last quarter, Upbit was the only crypto exchange to reclaim a “significant share” in trading volume of the 17 trading platforms that Kaiko analyzed.

In light of recent regulatory pressures, the banking crises and the catastrophic collapse of FTX, many reports have observed a growing trend towards decentralized alternatives and self-custody wallets.

Bitcoin and Ether left centralized exchanges in record numbers following the fall of FTX. The daily trading volume of decentralized perpetual exchanges also reached $5 billion in November 2022, the most since Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) and its connected TerraClassicUSD (USTC) stablecoin collapsed in May 2022.

Trading volumes on the decentralized exchange Uniswap are now rivaling that of crypto exchanges Coinbase and OKX but is still only a fraction of the size processed by Binance.

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US officials appeal protections for Voyager execs in Binance.US sale

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Bankruptcy Court

The DOJ disagrees with the legal protections given to those involved in the Voyager-Binance.US sale saying the court “improperly” exceeded its authority.

United States officials want to remove a provision included in bankrupt lender Voyager Digital’s plan to sell its digital assets to crypto exchange Binance.US that would prevent them from legally pursuing anyone involved with the sale.

In a motion filed on March 14 in a New York Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Trustee William Harrington and other government attorneys argued: “the court improperly exceeded its statutory authority" in approving a the pardoning.

They requested the court's approval of the sale be delayed for two weeks to allow them to file an appeal.

Tomorrow just got interesting. #Voyager #VGX #Binance #Bankruptcy #DOJ pic.twitter.com/23bqIWpX2M
— VGX Heroes (@VGX_Heroes) March 15, 2023

The provision protects those involved in carrying out the sale from being held personally liable for its implementation, which the court approved on March 7 after it was found that 97% of Voyager customers favored the plan, according to a Feb. 28 filing.

While U.S. officials are not objecting to other parts of the proposed sale, they argue the provision would impede the government's “ability to enforce its police and regulatory powers.”

Notice of Expedited Motion for Stay Pending Appeal filed by US Department of Justice in @investvoyager Bankruptcy

Looks like the exculpation provisions (legal protections for certain individuals) is the main thing holding up the dealhttps://t.co/a40FyPcoLa pic.twitter.com/zplip3eJob
— Shingo Lavine (@shingolavine) March 15, 2023

On March 6 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also objected to the plan, particularly the “extraordinary” and “highly improper” exculpation provision, arguing the repayment token would constitute an unregistered security offering and that Binance.US is operating an unregulated securities exchange.

A hearing on the issue is set to occur on March 15 at 2:00 pm local time.

Based on the latest estimates, the plan is expected to result in Voyager creditors recovering approximately 73% of the value of their funds.

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approval

The ruling allows the crypto lender a path out of its bankruptcy, but it still has to undertake some due diligence with Binance US before the sale is final.

Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital has won court approval to sell over $1 billion of its assets to Binance US.

The approval was granted by United States Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles on Mar. 7, which came after four days of arguments presented by Voyager and the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

Wiles said he would give the trading platform permission to close the Binance US sale and issue repayment tokens to impacted Voyager customers, which would give them back approximately 73% of what they're owed.

Wiles rejected a series of arguments by the SEC that the redistribution of the funds from Voyager to Binance.US would violate U.S. securities laws, according to a Mar. 7 report from Bloomberg:

“I cannot put the entire case into indeterminate deep freeze while regulators figure out whether they believe there are problems with the transaction and plan."

Peter M. Aronoff, a lawyer with the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it's considering appealing Wiles' decision.

The judge's decision comes just over a week after 97% of 61,300 Voyager account holders were found to be in favor of the current Binance.US restructuring plan, according to a Feb. 28 filing.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

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Bankruptcy Filing

The SEC claims the transactions involved with redistributing the funds to impacted Voyager account holders will trigger U.S. securities laws.

The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) won’t be allowed to fine executives involved in Voyager Digital should it end up issuing bankruptcy tokens to help repay impacted customers, bankruptcy judge Michael Wiles has said.

The comments from Wiles came on Mar. 6, the third day of hearings regarding a plan by Voyager to issue a repayment token and sell $1 billion of assets to Binance.US.

The SEC earlier argued that the repayment token would constitute an unregistered security offering, while Binance.US is operating an unregulated securities exchange.

In a supplemental objection statement, it also objected to a legal protection which stated that no U.S. agency, including the SEC, will be able to bring “any claim against any Person on account of or relating to the Restructuring Transactions.”

Essentially, this means that executives and restructuring advisers involved in Voyager’s bankruptcy would be shielded from lawsuits if they implement the bankruptcy plan, as long as it is court-approved.

*The SEC’s Mar. 6 supplemental objection statement to Voyager’s Chapter 11 Restructuring Plan. Source: Stretto.*

While the SEC described these provisions as “extraordinary” and “highly improper,” Wiles explained that giving the SEC such authority would “leave a sword hanging over the heads of anybody who’s going to do this transaction,” according to a Mar. 6 Bloomberg report, stating:

“How can a bankruptcy case or any court proceeding function with that kind of suggestion?”

SEC lawyer Therese Scheuer argued however that the legal protections are so broad that Voyager employees and lawyers would have permission to violate securities laws. After debate, Voyagers lawyers agreed to narrow the scope of legal releases, according to Bloomberg.

The trading platform officially filed for bankruptcy on Jul. 5 in an attempt to restructure the firm and “return value” back to over 100,000 customers.

The court has been considering a restructuring plan to bring Voyager out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy which would first announced on Dec. 19.

The plan would see crypto exchange Binance.US acquire its assets for $1.02 billion — an option Voyager said at the time represented the “highest and best bid for its assets.”

The SEC objected to the sale on Feb. 22, claiming aspects of the restructuring plan could breach securities laws. The regulator was then criticized over its ambiguous reasoning for the objection in a Mar. 2 court hearing.

A Feb. 28 court filing found that 97% of 61,300 polling Voyager account holders were in favor of the current Binance.US restructuring plan.

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