Binance briefly halts US dollar transfers
By Allison Morrow
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said it would temporarily halt transfers of US dollars starting Wednesday.
“Only a small proportion of our users will be impacted by this and we are working hard to restart the service as soon as possible,” the company tweeted Monday. “All other methods of buying and selling crypto remain unaffected.”
Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ, said on Twitter that although just 0.01% of active users engage in US dollar trades, “we appreciate that this is still a bad user experience and the team is working on quickly resolving this issue.”
Binance.US, which is run separately, was not affected by the suspension, and deposits and withdrawals in dollars are still functioning, a spokesperson for the US operation told CNN.
The suspension comes at an awkward time for crypto companies, and especially for centralized exchanges like Binance, which in November briefly considered a bailout of its rival FTX. That platform, which was in the midst of a liquitdity crisis, ultimately filed for bankruptcy and is now at the center of a massive federal fraud investigation.
FTX’s collapse ricocheted across the ecosystem for digital assets, sparking panic among investors and forcing other firms into liquidity crises of their own. Several, including Genesis, have since filed for bankruptcy.
The-CNN-Wire
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