Binance bows to pressure from regulators and closes futures trading. The new rules will cover a narrow circle of three European countries.
Immediate blockade
Under regulatory fire from many countries, the Binance exchange is once again making key changes to its platform in a very short period of time. This time they concern trading based on futures contracts, in three European countries. The issue concerns those residing in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
The exchange announced the decision in a statement on July 30. It reveals that Binance has decided to close the option to trade based on futures contracts with immediate effect. This means that there will be no possibility of making new trades for both current and new users. It looks different with regard to the already open positions. These, in turn, will have to be closed within 90 days of the date that the exchange is expected to announce soon.
The form of the statement itself has also taken an interesting turn. In its first words, Binance points out the need to meet the needs of its users. With regard to the simultaneous suspension of futures trading, this sounds somehow like a perverse and ironic diplomacy.
Binance has already managed to make some changes
Further changes on the most popular exchange in terms of turnover, are the aftermath of the events that have been taking place around it over the past few months. Considering only the European countries, it is worth noting that Binance has come under fire from many local regulators. The British financial regulator has indicated that the company does not have permission to provide derivatives trading capabilities. The Italian regulator expressed itself similarly. The German side, in turn, had doubts about the tokenized stock offering, which Binance took out of trading shortly after.
We recently reported that due to these signals, among others, the exchange decided to take steps to comply with some of the key restrictions. These included a significant reduction in the amount of BTC that can be withdrawn without going through the KYC procedure (from 2 BTC to 0.06BTC), and a reduction in the leverage allowed so far (from 125x to 20x).
Are there more changes in store for Binance users?
It is speculated in the crypto space that the current restrictions on Binance are just the beginning. Especially when it comes to trading based on futures contracts. Many regulators are copying the actions of others. An example of this is the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, which in issuing a warning on the exchange clearly admits that it is not based on its own research, but refers to authorities from other countries that see some irregularities in their assessment. Consequently, this may result in the expansion of the scope of changes on Binance to other countries.
