Another country is forcing restrictions on Binance. This time the exchange will stop providing some of its services in Australia.
The restrictions on Binance are progressing
As announced in the announcement, as of September 24, 9:00 UTC time, the exchange will stop offering options and futures trading services in Australia. Users will have 90 days to close their positions. This time will expire on December 23 and will result in the automatic deactivation of previously unclosed trades.
In addition, the exchange confirmed that the latest decision is a result of cooperation with regulatory authorities in the country. Binance has, until recently, faced considerable problems in many states where the exchange’s operations were seen as being in violation of local laws. The owners were left with no choice but to comply with all regulations. The consequences of not taking this step both for the exchange, its users, and even the entire cryptocurrency market were difficult to predict. However, the possible scenarios were not optimistic.
Thus, Australia becomes another country where Binance introduces new restrictions for its users. We reported about similar changes in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in the article under the title “Binance closes futures trading in Europe”. The solution quickly expanded to the Hong Kong region. In the rest of the world the leverage was reduced from 125x to 20x. The amount of cryptocurrency withdrawals that can be made without going through the KYC procedure has also been reduced. Until recently, it was 2 BTC, now it is as low as 0.06 BTC.
Where can Australians go now?
As it turns out, the new restrictions apply only to the Binance exchange for the time being. All other platforms offering options and futures-based cryptocurrency trading in Australia are still available to their users. However, it is possible that this may change over time. Governments recognize that many users of exchanges see an opportunity to get rich quick on cryptocurrencies. In an attempt to speed up the process, or in an effort to quickly make up for any losses incurred, they abuse leverage, risking to lose a lot of capital in the process. The desire to protect private funds may push current restrictions a little further over time.
