US arm of crypto giant Binances suspends dollar deposits | Crypto

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The move comes days after US regulators announced 13 civil charges against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Crypto exchange Binance.US said it was suspending US dollar deposits and banking partners were preparing to suspend fiat dollar withdrawal channels as of June 13, just days after US regulators sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao.

The US arm of the world’s largest crypto exchange said in a tweet on Thursday that the move comes as it takes proactive steps in its transition to a crypto-only exchange for the time being.

Crypto trading, staking, deposits and withdrawals would remain fully operational, the exchange said in a notice to clients.

On Monday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Binance and its founder Zhao, then sued Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency platform, a day later.

These developments mark a dramatic escalation in the crackdown on the industry by US regulators, following the implosion of FTX last year.

U.S. financial regulators had said earlier Thursday that they support a freeze of Binances assets, according to a U.S. SEC filing with federal court and made public.

Binance.US is a considerably smaller company than its international group. Stopping withdrawals will obviously create or cause quite a bit of concern and panic, said Matthew Dibb, COO of Singapore crypto platform Stack Funds.

But day by day over the past week, Binance has faced various kinds of comments and issues from the SEC and regulators, so that was really to be expected.

Cryptocurrency prices barely reacted to the news, with Bitcoin last just slightly lower at $26,496 on Friday’s Asian day.

It was heading for a weekly loss of around 2%, having tumbled to a more than two-month low of $25,350 earlier in the week as the SEC crackdown stoked nerves.

Binances BNB token slid 0.46% to $261.46.

The reaction has been extremely muted so far. Either the market has ignored it or it hasn’t figured it out yet, said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG Markets.

In its Thursday tweet, Binance.US said the SEC’s take on cryptocurrency is extremely aggressive and intimidating, adding that it will continue to vigorously defend itself, our customers and the industry against meritless attacks from the SEC.

The crypto industry has attacked US SEC Chairman Gary Gensler in recent days over the lawsuits, although he has since dismissed criticism that the agency is trying to crush the crypto industry.

As regulatory scrutiny continues, exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and industry players will further specialize in different roles to collectively provide the best user experience, said XREX Co-Founder and CEO Wayne Huang. Inc, a blockchain-enabled financial institution operating the XREX USD-crypto exchange.

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