Binance temporarily suspends Euro deposits via SEPA

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Binance has suspended bank deposits from the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) due to “events beyond our (the Binance team’s) control.”

According to Binance, “Any deposits attempted via SEPA in the meantime will be returned within 7 working days.”

However, Binance users can still make withdrawals via SEPA. Binance claims that this suspension is temporary however, it adds fuel to the fire that is the global crackdown that has been taking place on Binance by financial regulators around the world.

Binance’s troubles

It started back in May when a report from Bloomberg stated that the IRS and the DOJ were investigating Binance; since then, it has been downhill for Binance–especially in recent weeks.

In late June, a South African bank barred its clients from purchasing digital currencies on Binance because they claimed that Binance was not compliant.

A few days later, Japan’s financial watchdog issued Binance a warning saying that Binance was operating in Japan without permission.

Shortly after that, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against Binance for operating in their country without the necessary license; and then the financial regulator in the Cayman islands said,

“Binance Group and Binance Holdings Limited are not registered, licensed, regulated or otherwise authorized by the Authority to operate a cryptocurrency exchange from or within the Cayman Islands.”

And finally, Barclay’s suspended all debit and credit card transactions going to Binance after the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority issued a statement saying that “Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the U.K.”

Binance plans to comply?

Binance will have to answer to the financial regulators that have voiced concerns and filed complaints about Binance’s operations in their respective countries. If Binance is not able to comply with these regulators, they will be forced to terminate their service offering in that country as Binance recently had to do in Ontario, Canada.

Binance Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) published a blog post on July 6th that addressed Binance’s compliance problem among other matters.

“As I said at the end of 2020, compliance is a journey – especially in new sectors like crypto,” said CZ.

“The adoption and development of crypto has many parallels with that of the car. When the car was first invented, there weren’t any traffic laws, traffic lights or even safety belts. Laws and guidelines were developed along the way as the cars were running on the road.

These are frameworks and laws we take for granted today that allow this powerful technology to be used widely and safely. Crypto is similar in the sense that it can be accessible for everyone, but frameworks are required to prevent misuse and bad actors. Clarifying and building the first set of standards is critical for the industry’s continued growth. And Binance wants to be a positive contributor.”

According to CZ, Binance has grown–and looks to continue growing–its international compliance team. From the looks of it, Binance is banking on those compliance hires and their relationships with financial regulators to pull Binance out of the trouble it is in with regulators.