Malaysia’s Securities Commission has ordered crypto exchange Binance to stop operating in the country. The regulator demands Binance take down its website and mobile apps, stops all marketing activities, and restricts Malaysian investors from its Telegram group.
Recently, the firm has made a number of significant changes to its platform. This includes reducing leverage to a maximum of 20x and limiting withdraws up to 0.06 BTC ($2.3k) for non-KYC’ed users.
Today, Binance announced it’s also winding down its futures and derivatives offerings in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
With so much happening, can the firm retain its edge in what is already a fiercely competitive market?
Binance Under Fire
In an attempt to get on the right side of regulators, Binance said it would cease offering futures and derivatives products in key European markets.
Users in the affected countries can no longer open futures or derivatives accounts. And those with open trades will have 90 days to close their position(s) effective from a yet-to-be-announced date.
“With immediate effect, users from these countries will not be able to open new futures or derivatives products accounts. With effect from a later date to be announced in a further notice, users from these countries will have 90 days to close their open positions.“
The firm said this is due to the continuous evaluation of their products in an ever-evolving crypto ecosystem. However, given the global regulatory heat they are under, it’s fair to assume their recent concessions are related.
This comes as Malaysia’s Securities Commission orders Binance to cease its operations and leave the country.
Malaysia joins a string of other regulatory agencies in denouncing the world’s largest crypto exchange. This list includes the U.K, Hong Kong, Italy, the Cayman Islands, Thailand, Japan, and the Canadian province of Ontario.
Appeasing Regulators
Binance maintains it is committed to working with regulators and has always put user’s interests first. CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) spun recent events to imply the regulatory crackdown is good for crypto.
“More regulations are, in fact, positive signs that an industry is maturing, because this sets the foundation for a broader population to feel safe to participate in crypto.”
In addressing the issue of a lack of headquarters, Binance said it’s looking at setting up physical locations in multiple jurisdictions. CZ commented that its existing decentralized structure “baffles regulators.”
“They couldn’t really understand an organization like that. So now we’ll go for a standard structure that regulators around the world understand and are comfortable with.”
According to the Verge, hundreds of users from Italy and France, who lost money during the crypto crash and subsequent system failure, struggled to file legal papers due to the “decentralized structure.”
But with all these changes happening, it’s clear that Binance is taking affirmative action to address regulatory concerns.
On losing its edge, CZ said it’s difficult for rivals to replicate Binance’s ecosystem.
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