Amid the ongoing uncertainty around the global banking turmoil, Binance’s United States-based arm Binance.US is halting some services.
According to Binance.US status dashboard, the U.S. crypto exchange on March 31 disabled Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin pairs via One Common Billing System, referred to as OCBS.
The affected services include BUSD crypto deposits and withdrawals, or buying, selling and converting crypto options, the status notice says.
Binance.US said that the firm is currently investigating the issue, noting that the services are “suspended temporarily.”
The OCBS and BUSD issues on Binance.US came shortly after the firm halted certain U.S. dollar deposit services on March 30. According to the dashboard, Binance.US temporarily suspended Apple Pay and Google Pay deposits due to the company “transitioning to new banking and payment service providers over the next several weeks.”
For up to 5% of Binance.US customers, the platform has also halted debit card deposits starting from March 30, 2023. “We are working to restore all services as soon as possible,” Binance.US stated.
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The news comes amid Binance.US’ global affiliate, Binance, facing legal action from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). On March 27, the CFTC filed a suit against Binance and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao for alleged trading violations, arguing that the exchange failed to meet compliance obligations by not registering with the regulator.
Launched in September 2019 and headquartered in California, Binance.US operates as a separate entity from Binance, which is not available to U.S. users due to local regulations.
Catherine Coley, the first CEO of Binance.US, reportedly enlisted a former federal prosecutor and top cop at the CFTC to represent her in the U.S. government’s investigations into Binance.US. After leaving Binance.US in June 2021, Coley has remained silent about her whereabouts in media and hasn’t posted anything on her Twitter.
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