Binance, which presently holds the title as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by transaction volume, announced on Wednesday that it would be suspending US dollar deposits and withdrawals.
On Monday a spokesperson for Binance said, “We are temporarily suspending USD bank transfers as of February 8. Affected customers are being notified directly.” The spokesperson offered no official explanation for the suspension, but said the exchange is “working hard to restart service as soon as possible.”
In the broader crypto-community, speculation pointed to an issue with its bank partner likely placing restrictions on transfers. Last month Signature Bank, which had partnered with Binance, had said it would be suspending SWIFT transfers for crypto-transactions of less than $100,000.
In the statement, Binance noted that only, “0.01% of [Binance’s] monthly active users leverage USD bank transfers.”
The spokesperson clarified, “In the interim, all other methods of buying and selling crypto remain unaffected, including bank transfer using one of the other fiat currencies supported by Binance (including euros), buying and selling crypto via credit card, debit card, Google Pay and Apple Pay and via our Binance P2P marketplace.”
Data from Arkham Intelligence showed that after news of the suspension broke, there was a surge of outflows of dollar-pegged stablecoins from Binance’s crypto wallets. Other data from DefiLlama showed however, that as the net US dollar outflow on Monday totaled $172 million, Binance’s crypto holdings amount to roughly $42.2 billion.
In their statement, the spokesperson made specific note of the fact the exchange is “still overwhelmingly net-positive on net deposits.”
Binance’s US division tweeted out a statement saying it is not affected by the suspension. Since Binance’s main exchange does not offer service to users located in the US, the new suspension applies only to customers outside of the US which wish to transfer money in US currency.