Crypto exchange Binance, The U.S. announced on Thursday that it would block U.S. dollar deposits and that its banking partners would halt fiat currency withdrawal channels on June 13 after suing Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The U.S. branch of the world’s largest crypto exchange tweeted at 10:33 p.m. EDT (0233 GMT Friday) that it is taking “proactive steps” to become a crypto-only exchange.
The exchange notified customers that crypto trading, staking, deposits, and withdrawals would continue.
ON TUESDAY, the SEC sued Binance and its founder Zhao and Coinbase (COIN.O). After FTX fell last year, U.S. regulators ramped up their attacks. According to a Thursday SEC filing, U.S. financial regulators supported a Binance asset freeze.
“Binance.US business is modest compared to abroad.”Halting withdrawals will cause a lot of worry and panic,” said Matthew Dibb, COO of Singapore crypto platform Stack Funds.
“But day after day for the past week, Binance has been hit with various comments and issues from the SEC and regulators, so this was expected.” Bitcoin dropped to $26,496 during Asian Day on Friday.
The SEC crackdown caused it to tumble to $25,350 early in the week, setting it up for a 2% weekly loss. BNB dropped 0.46% to $261.46.
Tony Sycamore, market analyst at I.G. Markets, said, “The response has been pretty quiet. “Either the market has shrugged it off, or it hasn’t gotten a hold of it.”
Binance.US tweeted Thursday that the SEC’s crypto policy is “extremely aggressive and intimidating” and will “vigorously defend ourselves, our customers, and industry against the meritless attacks of the SEC.”
After the litigation, The crypto business targeted U.S. SEC director Gary Gensler, who denied that the agency wants to destroy the industry.
“As regulatory scrutiny continues, exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and industry players will further specialize in different roles to collectively provide the best user experience,” said Wayne Huang, Co-founder, and CEO of XREX Inc., a blockchain-enabled financial institution operating the XREX USD-crypto exchange.
