Binance has announced that they will be ending their crypto offerings to Australian traders by the end of 2021. Any existing Australian users have 90 days to close their trades including any positions on options, futures and leveraged tokens. After December 23, all remaining open positions will be automatically closed. This was all stated in an announcement on Tuesday.
The move to restrict Australian offerings follows last month’s restrictions on options, margin products and leveraged tokens where new accounts were prevented from engaging. In the run up to Tuesday’s announcement, Binance also halted its crypto margin trading involving the sterling, the euro, and the Australian dollar. This occurred back in July to efforts to appease financial regulators.
Binance is a separate form from Binance Australia, which is operated by InvestBit, a company registered with the country’s financial regulator AUSTRAC as a “digital currency exchange provider.” Binance has been under fire from regulators around the world. It was recently accused of insider trading by the U.S regulators and was recently banned from conducting activity in the UK.
It is thought that Binance has pulled out of Australia to avoid regulatory pressure- the same move has been made three times before by the firm. Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange and faces continuous pressures from regulatory bodies to comply with tightening standards. In the past, Binance has shown a positive approach towards conforming to regulation however, this does not stop the watchdogs from scanning their every move.
Despite the regulatory pressure, Binance continues to to progress with hopes of flattening the altitude between regulators and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Read more about Binance’s regulatory feuds here.
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