Crypto exchange Binance has announced a discontinuation of South Korean Won trading pairs and language support.
Crypto Exchange Binance Pulls Out Of South Korea
As per an announcement on the firm’s website, the platform no longer offers support for certain South Korea-related services.
These discontinued Binance services include South Korean Won (KRW) trading pairs, KRW payment options, P2P merchant applications, and Korean language website support.
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While the firm immediately discontinued some of these services, P2P traders got a time limit to finish off their trades. The website post clarifies:
Binance P2P will remove KRW trading pairs on Friday, 2021-08-13 at 11:00 UTC (20:00 UTC+9). Users are advised to complete all related P2P trades and remove related trade advertisements by 2021-08-13 10:00 UTC (19:00 UTC+9) to avoid potential trading disputes.
The platform also notes that it isn’t operating any official Telegram or other online communication channels in Korean.
Earlier, the crypto exchange received warnings from financial watchdogs around the world regarding regulatory matters. Some of the regulators called Binance “unauthorized” to carry out regulated services in their nations.
The list of countries putting regulatory pressure on the platform is quite long, but it includes the likes of UK, Hong Kong, and Italy. An interesting thing to note is that while the list has too many countries, South Korea isn’t in it.
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The reason behind Binance’s move could be related to the notice from the South Korean Financial Intelligence Unit last month. According to which, all foreign crypto exchanges have until 24 September to register in line with their new anti-money laundering laws.
The platform says regarding regulation:
Our aim is to create a sustainable ecosystem around blockchain technology and digital assets. Binance welcomes developments to our industry’s regulatory framework as they pose opportunities for the market players to have greater collaboration with the regulators. We are committed to working constructively in policy-making that seeks to benefit every user.
Bitcoin Price
At the time of writing, BTC’s price floats around $46.6k, up 14% in the last 7 days. Monthly gains for the crypto are around 42%.
Here is a chart showing the trend in Bitcoin’s value over the past three months:
BTC's price has rebounded back quickly after a sudden drop down to $44k | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Binance has made several changes over the past month to be in line with regulation. One of these was a reduction in withdrawal limit for non-KYC accounts from 2 Bitcoin to 0.06 BTC.
A few weeks ago, the crypto exchange also announced that it’s reducing maximum leverage for futures contracts from hundred times to twenty times.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com