Cryptocurrency exchange Binance today June 14th announced that it has updated its terms of use, which notably includes a restriction of services to United States-based individual and corporate traders. This comes after news that the company is launching a separate, fully regulated fiat-to-crypto platform for the U.S. market.
Today’s announcement provides a timeline for the new terms to come into effect, specifying that:
“After 90 days, effective on 2019/09/12 [12th September 2019], users who are not in accordance with Binance’s Terms of Use will continue to have access to their wallets and funds, but will no longer be able to trade or deposit on Binance.com.”
While the use of a virtual private network could ostensibly allow U.S. users to circumvent the new restrictions, withdrawals for non-verified users remain capped at up to 2 bitcoin (BTC) per 24 hours. Sums above this threshold would require users to provide evidence that they are complying with the platform’s Terms of Use.
In a tweet published yesterday, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said:
“Some short term pains may be necessary for long term gains. And we always work hard to turn every short term pain into a long term gain.”
Earlier this month, it was reported that the decentralized exchange (DEX) developed by Binance will use geo-blocking to restrict website access to users in 29 countries, including the U.S.
Zhao revealed in September 2018 that the company intends to launch five to ten fiat-to-crypto exchanges — two per continent within one year.
The firm has launched fiat-crypto platforms in Uganda, Singapore and Jersey, with support for a limited range of cryptocurrencies.