Binance to temporarily suspend bank transfers in US dollars beginning Feb. 8

The announcement came without warning two days in advance, but it does not apply to Binance.US users, so only 0.01% of active users will be affected.

Binance has announced that it is temporarily suspending bank transfers in United States dollars (USD) beginning Feb. 8. No other trading methods will be affected, the exchange said in a tweet on Feb. 6.

The news came with no explanation, although the company, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, added in the same tweet that:

“We are working hard to restart the service as soon as possible. […] All other methods of buying and selling crypto remain unaffected.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said in a separate tweet:

“It is worth noting that USD bank transfers are leveraged by only 0.01% of our monthly active users. However, we appreciate that this is still a bad user experience.

The suspension apparently applies only to international Binance users, as Binance.US tweeted that “our customers will not be affected.”

Binance has had banking challenges in the United States recently. Its SWIFT transfer partner Signature Bank said on Jan. 21 that it would only process trades by users with USD bank accounts over $100,000, effective Feb. 1. The bank had said previously that it was drastically reducing deposits from crypto clients.

Binance said at the time that it was seeking a new SWIFT partner and trades with USD using credit or debit cards would still be accepted, as would all SWIFT trades using other currencies.

Also on Feb. 1, Binance published a list of 144 countries where USD SWIFT transfers of any size would be suspended.

CNBC reports, citing Arkham Intelligence, that there has been an immediate outflow of Tether and USD Coin stablecoins pegged to the dollar to other exchanges, adding that the outflow was “tiny” compared to Binance’s $42.2 billion in crypto assets.