Binance has announced that it is terminating some services in South Africa to comply with regulations. This relocation followed a warning released by the South African monetary regulator that Binance Group was not licensed to offer any monetary recommendations or render any intermediary services in the nation.
Binance Ceases Some Services in South Africa
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced Friday some changes to its offerings in South Africa. Noting that it “constantly evaluates its product and service offerings to comply with local regulations,” Binance stated it will “cease offering” futures, choices, margin, and leveraged tokens items to South African users. The business included:
With immediate effect, South African users will be restricted from opening new accounts for these products. Users will have 90 days to decrease and close their positions for these items.
The exchange continued, “Users will be able to top-up margin balances to prevent margin calls and liquidations, but they will not be able to increase or open new positions.” Furthermore, “Users will no longer be able to manually reduce or close their positions after 6th January 2022 11:59 PM (UTC). Thereafter all remaining open positions will be closed.”
This announcement followed a warning issued in early September by South Africa’s financial regulator, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).
The FSCA alerted the general public that Binance Group was not licensed to offer any monetary recommendations or render any intermediary services in regards to the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (FAIS Act) in South Africa. Following the FSCA’s notice, Binance issued a statement claiming that “Binance.com does not provide financial advice or render any intermediary services.”
Regulators in numerous jurisdictions worldwide have actually been greatly inspecting Binance, consisting of those in the U.K., Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Lithuania, Italy, and Canada. U.S. authorities are likewise examining Binance for possible market control and expert trading.
