Crypto Exchange Binance Discontinues Some Services in South Africa After Regulator Warns – Exchanges

Binance has announced that it will suspend some services in South Africa to comply with regulations. The move followed a warning from South Africa's financial regulator that Binance Group was not authorized to provide financial advice or provide brokerage services in the country.

Binance is discontinuing some services in South Africa

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced some changes to its offerings in South Africa on Friday. Noting that it “constantly evaluates its product and service offerings to comply with local regulations,” Binance said it will “cease offering” futures, options, margin and leveraged token products to South African users. The company added:

Effective immediately, South African users will be prohibited from opening new accounts for these products. Users have 90 days to reduce and close their positions on these products.

The exchange continued: “Users can top up margin balances to prevent margin calls and liquidations, but they cannot increase or open new positions.” Additionally, users will no longer be able to manually reduce or close their positions after January 6, 2022, 11:59 p.m. (UTC). After that, all remaining open positions will be closed.”

This announcement followed a warning was issued at the beginning of September by the South African financial regulator Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).

The FSCA warned the public that Binance Group is not authorized to provide financial advice or intermediary services within the meaning of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 2002 (FAIS Act) in South Africa. Following the FSCA's announcement, Binance announced a opinion claims that “Binance.com does not provide financial advice or brokerage services.”

Regulators in many jurisdictions worldwide have placed Binance under strict scrutiny, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Lithuania, Italy and Canada. US authorities are also investigating Binance for possible market manipulation and insider trading.

What do you think about Binance discontinuing some offerings in South Africa? Let us know in the comments section below.

Photo credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons