Binance Will Temporarily Suspend US Dollar Bank Transfers

Binance has confirmed to Decrypt that the exchange plans to pause bank transfers of U.S. dollars this week. 

“We are temporarily suspending USD bank transfers as of February 8th. Affected customers are being notified directly. It’s worth noting that only 0.01% of our monthly active users leverage USD bank transfers, but that we are working hard to restart service as soon as possible,” Binance told Decrypt via email Monday.

The Binance representative said all other methods of buying and selling crypto on the exchange will remain unaffected, including deposits and withdrawals for euros. Binance users will also be able to continue buying and selling crypto with credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and on the Binance peer-to-peer marketplace, the spokesperson said.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, serves a global user base but excludes U.S. residents from its platform for regulatory reasons. It instead redirects U.S. users to its American affiliate, Binance US, which is a considerably smaller exchange.

While Binance did not confirm the reason for the pause in USD bank transfers, the suspension is likely due to issues with its bank partner Signature Bank, which said last month that it would stop processing crypto SWIFT transactions under $100,000.

After the announcement, Binance updated its list of countries in which SWIFT transfers are not supported.