Binance on Monday announced the suspension of USD bank transfers, effective from February 8, for both deposits and withdrawals. Although the suspension will affect a small fraction of the user base, the world’s largest crypto exchange said it is working to restart the USD bank transfers for deposits and withdrawals as early as possible.
“All other methods of buying and selling crypto remain unaffected,” it said. In a statement to Bloomberg, a Binance spokesperson clarified that buying and selling activities on Binance will “remain unaffected” in via credit card, Google Pay, and Apple Pay.
“It’s worth noting that only 0.01% of our monthly active users leverage USD bank transfers, but that we are working hard to restart service as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said.
The USD bank transfer feature for Binance.US customers remains unaffected. “Binance.US customers can continue to safely and securely withdraw and deposit USD on our platform,” the Binance’s US arm said in a tweet on Monday.
While Binance did not offer any clarification as to why it is suspending USD bank transfers, it’s believed that banks are more guarded in their partnerships with crypto firms post-FTX’s collapse.
“While some banks withdrawing support for crypto, other banks are moving in. Some setbacks were expected from last year’s incidents. Long term, keep building,” Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao “CZ” tweeted following the news of Binance suspending USD bank transfers. CZ added that USD bank transfers are used by 0.01% of Binance’s monthly active users.
“However, we appreciate that this is still a bad user experience and the team is working on quickly resolving this issue,” he added.
