- Customers of the exchange can still make purchases using credit cards
- Binance suspended USD transfers over debt-ridden lender Silvergate
On Saturday, crypto exchange Bybit announced it was halting US dollar deposits for national and international clients, CoinDesk reported. The exchange said it had “temporarily suspended USD deposits via wire transfer, including SWIFT,” citing service outages from their final processing partner. Suspension is effective from March 10.
Users can still transact in crypto
Customers of the exchange can still make purchases using credit cards and deposit and withdraw crypto to and from wallet addresses. A spokesperson commented:
The payment gateway interruption is limited in scope and does not involve other fiat or crypto currencies and/or account funding channels. Users can still buy crypto currencies in USD using their debit and credit cards through other channels. We are closely urging our partners for alternative solutions, and will keep our users and stakeholders posted as soon as there are further developments.
Binance also suspended USD transfers
A month ago, the world’s biggest digital assets exchange by trading volume also suspended USD transfers in relation to debt-ridden lender Silvergate. The California-based company has been offering crypto companies traditional banking services. Exchanges like Binance were among its clients.
A week ago, Silvergate postponed filing its annual report with SEC, saying it was reassessing whether it can keep operating as a going concern.
A decision with critical impact on the market
According to crypto service research expert Markus Thielen, Bybit’s decision to follow in Binance’s footsteps against the backdrop of Silvergate issues is crucial for the entire crypto industry. He pointed out that Bitcoin lost 10% of its value when Binance suspended US dollar transfers in January. Now that Bybit is also halting them, wire transfers and SWIFT (national resp. international) cannot reach all crypto exchanges.
He added that evidence suggests a purposeful attempt to deprive crypto companies and exchanges of their access to US dollars.
