Crypto Exchange Binance has announced that users from Hong Kong can no longer create new futures accounts.
Crypto Exchange Binance Haults New Hong Kong Futures Accounts
Binance announced today in a blog post on its website that the crypto exchange is winding down derivative trading in Hong Kong.
The announcement explains:
As the market leader, Binance constantly evaluates its product and service offerings. We will be restricting Hong Kong users in respect of derivatives products (including all futures, options, margin products and leveraged tokens) in-line with our commitment to compliance.
The move comes into “immediate effect” for new accounts. While existing users will get a 90-day grace period during which they can close their open positions.
The blog post notes that this grace period will only start at a later date, which will be announced soon. Also, during this grace period, users can’t open any new positions.
During the past few months, the crypto exchange has faced several challenges related to regulation around the world. Nations like the UK, US, Malaysia, Italy, and Thailand have all given warnings to the firm.
Just last month, Hong Kong’s financial regulator clarified that Binance can’t carry out regulated activities within the country.
Recently, the crypto exchange announced that moving forward it will follow all compliance procedures and related licensing.
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Binance will be the first major cryptocurrency and digital assets exchange to proactively restrict access to derivatives products to Hong Kong users.
In a similar move last month, the organization announced that it’s discontinuing stock tokens, something the Hong Kong financial regulator has showed concerns about.
Binance is currently the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume, with almost $21 billion in volume.
Bitcoin Price
At the time of writing, BTC’s price floats around $40.9k, up 5% in the last 7 days. Over the past 30 days, the crypto seems to have accumulated 18% in gains.
Here is chart that shows the trend in the value of Bitcoin over the last 3 months:
BTC's price zig-zags around the $40k mark | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
After a short downtrend following a touch of the $42k mark, Bitcoin seems to be back on an upwards trend as the crypto successfully breaks the $40k resistance once more.
Yesterday, an 11k BTC inflow to the crypto exchange Binance caused a 5% decrease in the price of the cryptocurrency.
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Right now, BTC seems to be repeatedly wobbling up and down the $40k level, but the fact that it’s not jumping right back up after touching it could prove to be a positive sign. However, it’s still unclear whether Bitcoin can keep the trend up or if it will start a downtrend from here on.
