Binance halts support for Singapore dollar pairs following stern warning from local regulator

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has decided to halt support for trading pairs in the Singapore dollar following the country’s financial watchdog’s investor alert indicating that the firm violated payment regulations.

Binance to remove support for SGD product offerings

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of reported trading volumes will discontinue the offerings for trading pairs in the Singapore dollar (SGD) starting September 10. 

Users were advised to complete all peer-to-peer trades 24 hours ahead of the deadline as payment options in the local currency will also be removed from its website.

Binance announced that it will also delete its mobile application from the App Store and Google Play in Singapore. 

The cryptocurrency firm’s decision to stop supporting product offerings in SGD stems from a warning from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which set forth that Binance may be violating the country’s Payment Services Act (PSA). 

Binance was revealed to be on the financial regulator’s investor alert list on September 1. The list suggests that the crypto firm is unregulated and “based on the information received by MAS, may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or regulated by MAS.”

Singapore joins a growing list of countries around the world that have been cracking down on the leading cryptocurrency exchange. Jurisdictions including Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Canadian province of Ontario suggest that Binance has failed to comply with local regulations.

The Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom recently said that Binance complied with requirements. However, it also deemed that the exchange was “not capable” of being supervised as the firm failed to respond to basic questions.

In response to the increasing scrutiny from financial regulators around the world, Binance has stated that the firm will try to improve relations with regulators and to get licensed worldwide.

Binance Coin price unaffected by regulatory backlash

Binance Coin price has indicated resilience even after receiving a flurry of regulatory backlash. The exchange-based token has continued to trend upwards in an ascending parallel channel on the 4-hour chart.

BNB may look to retest the lower boundary of the prevailing chart pattern as support at $483, coinciding with the 50 four-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA). Only a break below this level would indicate weakness for Binance Coin price, but the coin may discover support at the 100 four-hour SMA at $480 should this be the case.

BNB/USDT 4-hour chart

Currently, Binance Coin price faces resistance at the 61.8% Fibonacci extension level at $507. Slicing above this level could mean bigger aspirations for the bulls, targeting the middle boundary of the parallel channel at $528. 

Should BNB be accompanied by a spike in buying volume, bullish investors could expect Binance Coin price to tag the topside trend line of the chart pattern, at $588, corresponding to the 78.6% Fibonacci extension level.