Binance announced on February 6 that it would temporarily suspend US dollar deposits and withdrawals for international customers from February 8, 2023. The USD SWIFT transfers of all sizes would be suspended in 144 countries according to the list that was published by the exchange on February 1. After Binance announced the suspension, millions of dollars worth of crypto flowed out of the exchange.
However, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange said that it remains ‘net-positive’ despite such issues. Although this announcement carried no explanation, Binance assured its users in its tweet on February 6 that no other trading methods would be affected. Besides, it will not apply to Binance.US users. Only 0.01 percent of the monthly active users will be affected, as they are the ones who leverage USD bank transfers.
The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, acknowledged that this is still a bad user experience. Signature Bank, the exchange’s SWIFT banking partner, had increased US dollar transaction minimums to $100,000 in late January. The bank had told Binance at the time that these minimums applied to all of the exchange’s customers. However, they can still use other fiat currencies or payment methods to buy cryptocurrencies.
In the tweet about the suspension, the exchange also mentioned that it was working hard to reset the service as soon as possible. A Binance spokesperson said that the exchange was seeking a new SWIFT partner in the coming weeks. The exchange’s token, BNB was steady at around $328, indicating that the news did not have a significant effect on it.
Based on the data provided by DefiLlama, the net US dollar outflow of Binance on the day of the announcement was more than $172 million. According to Arkham Intelligence, this is just a tiny amount for a company with crypto assets worth $42.2 billion.