Breaking: Binance.US suspends USD deposits, warns of fiat withdrawal pause

June 9, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance.us

Binance.US said the moves are part of efforts to protect customers and the platform amid "extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics" by the SEC.

Binance.US has announced the suspension of U.S. dollar deposits and has notified its customers of an incoming pause to fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13.

On June 9, Binance.US announced that it was forced to take action amid “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics” from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

The firm noted that, in an effort to protect its customers and platform, it is suspending USD deposits. Furthermore, Binance.US is “notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023.”

The SEC has taken to using extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics in its pursuit of an ideological campaign against the American digital asset industry. https://t.co/AZwoBOgsqS and our business partners have not been spared in the use of these tactics, which has created… pic.twitter.com/rlIe6swIoY
— Binance.US (@BinanceUS) June 9, 2023

The company added that it plans to transition to a crypto-only exchange but maintains a 1:1 ratio for customer assets.

The notice also cautioned that any downtime in processing withdrawals going forward “may be the result of elevated volumes and weekend bank closures.”

Trading, staking, deposits and withdrawals in crypto remain fully operational, it confirmed.

As a result of the SEC’s “ideological campaign against the American digital asset industry,” Binance.US and its banking partners have faced increasing challenges, it said. Those banking partners have signaled their intent to sever fiat on-ramps to the exchange.

USD deposits will be suspended as of June 9 and USD trading pairs will be delisted next week, the firm stated, however, it will continue to support USDT (Tether) trading pairs. It stated that any USD left on the exchange may be converted into a stablecoin that can be withdrawn on-chain.

Ten trading pairs delisted by Binance.US. Source: Binance.US

Binance.US delisted ten trading pairs on June 8, eight BTC pairs and two BUSD pairs, while noting that OTC Trading Portal services were paused. BTC traded at a premium on the U.S. exchange in early May.

The SEC issued an emergency order on June 6 to freeze the assets of Binance.US. The following day, the firm reassured customers that assets remained safe adding that the platform continues to be fully operational with deposits and withdrawals functioning as normal.

Cointelegraph reported on the struggles Binance.US was having securing banking partners in April.

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Binance halts Bitcoin withdrawals for the second time in 12 hours

May 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The crypto exchange said it temporarily closed BTC withdrawals due to a “large volume of pending transactions.”

Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals on Binance have again been temporarily shuttered, with the crypto exchange claiming it was due to a large backlog of pending withdrawals.

Binance tweeted on May 8 that it closed off BTC withdrawals “temporarily” as there was a “large volume of pending transactions.”

It added the transactions are still pending, as its “set fees did not anticipate the recent surge in [Bitcoin] network gas fees.”

There is a large volume of withdrawal transactions from Binance still pending as our set fees did not anticipate the recent surge in $BTC network gas fees.

Our team is working to accelerate the confirmation of all pending transactions.

We'll provide updates here.
— Binance (@binance) May 8, 2023

The exchange said it was “working on a fix,” and that withdrawals for Bitcoin would be back “as soon as possible." It added it was working to “accelerate the confirmation of all pending transactions.”

Earlier on May 7, Binance also had to temporarily suspend Bitcoin withdrawals, claiming there was an overflow of transactions on the blockchain. It reopened withdrawals over an hour and a half later.

At the time, the Bitcoin mempool had a backlog of around 400,000 transactions waiting to be processed. That's now swelled to nearly 485,000, according to data from mempool.space.

*Bitcoin mempool at 2:30 am UTC on May 8. Source: Mempool Space*

A mempool is an area where transactions on the Bitcoin network “wait” before being verified by each blockchain node.

Binance saw significant Bitcoin net negative outflows on May 7 with around 175,650 BTC worth around $4.95 billion flowing from the exchange on the day according to data from CryptoQuant.

The price of Bitcoin has also fallen around 3.5% from its weekly high of over $29,700 on May 6, as per Cointelegraph data.

*A seven-day chart showing over 175,650 BTC ($4.95 billion) of net negative flows (red) to Binance on May 7 as the price of Bitcoin (black line) dropped. Source: CryptoQuant*

Cointelegraph contacted Binance for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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Update (May 8, 2:43 am UTC): This article has been updated with additional information from Binance on why it suspended withdrawals.

Update (May 8, 3:35 am UTC): This article has been updated with Bitcoin price data and net outflow data from CryptoQuant.

Crypto.com commits to proof-of-reserves after halting certain deposits and withdrawals

November 10, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

"We share the belief that it should be necessary for crypto platforms to publicly share proof of reserves," the Crypto.com CEO said.

Kris Marszalek, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has become the latest crypto company promising to publish "audited proof of reserves," amid the downfall of rival exchange FTX.

"We share the belief that it should be necessary for crypto platforms to publicly share proof of reserves," said Marszalek, adding that his company "will be publishing our audited proof of reserves."

We share the belief that it should be necessary for crypto platforms to publicly share proof of reserves and https://t.co/pFc4Pz9nFR will be publishing our audited proof of reserves.
— Kris | Crypto.com (@kris) November 10, 2022

The idea for crypto companies to publish their proof of reserves has gained traction in the wake of the FTX liquidity fiasco. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao on Nov. 8 also pledged to start a Proof-of-Reserves audit system to give the public insights into the state of their reserves.

The Crypto.com CEO's comments come only hours after the exchange temporarily suspended withdrawals and deposits of USDC and USDT on the Solana network on Nov. 9.

In an email to users on Nov. 9, which had been circulating on Twitter, Crypto.com reportedly notified users of an “Immediate suspension of UDSC and USDT Deposits and withdrawals on Solana.”

In the email, the exchange assured its customers that they could still withdraw USDC and USDT at any time using other supported networks, such as Cronos and Ethereum, suggesting that other named networks had not been impacted by “recent industry events”.

When https://t.co/5NeQKxhWmO suspends all deposits and withdrawals via #Solana is clear something is not right... #cryptocrash #SOL pic.twitter.com/GFAcOVTzNR
— The Black Tie Report (@BlackTieReport) November 9, 2022

Cointelegraph reached out to Crypto.com, who confirmed that the news circulating on social media about the suspension of withdrawals and deposits of USDC and USDT on the Solana network was indeed true. The exchange added that “any unreceived deposits of these two tokens over Solana will be refunded without a fee for the next two weeks.” However, they declined to provide more depth on the issue.

The exchange added that “any unreceived deposits of these two tokens over Solana will be refunded without a fee for the next two weeks.” However, they declined to provide more depth on the issue.

The past 96 hours have seen the crypto markets sent into a frenzy due to the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.

On Nov. 6, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, announced plans to liquidate the entirety of its position in FTX Token (FTT), the native token of competing exchange FTX, which led to a bank run and the plunging of the price of its FTT token.

A surprise turn of events occurred on Oct. 8 when the Binance CEO shared that his company had “signed a non-binding Letter of Intent, intending to fully acquire FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch.”

The CEO added that nothing was set in stone as they were "assessing the situation in real time" and had the ability "to pull out from the deal at any time."

Less than 48 hours later, the CEO announced they had pulled out of the deal entirely.

The unfolding of these latest events has caused a cascading effect on the markets, particularly those with links to FTX and its related companies.

On Nov. 9, Cointelegraph reported that Solana (SOL) was on the track to log its worst daily performance on record, as SOL’s price dropped more than 40% due to its association with Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto-focused hedge fund Alameda Research and cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

In the midst of the unfolding events, the co-founder of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko shared a tweet suggesting that Solana had not been affected by the unfolding events. He stated; “Solana Labs, a US corp, didn’t have any assets on ftx.com, so we still have tons of runway, and luckily still a small team.”

Solana Labs, a US corp, didn’t have any assets on https://t.co/nL7jEmgrVT, so we still have tons of runway, and luckily still a small team.
— toly (@aeyakovenko) November 9, 2022

At the time of publication, Solana was trading at around $14.97, down 30.29% over the last 24 hours.

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