Binance.US, the US affiliate of the largest global crypto exchange by trading volume, indefinitely suspended its over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform following the crackdown against it by the US securities regulator.
Binance Suspends OTC Trading
“Binance.US has paused its OTC Trading Portal services. In the upcoming weeks and months, Binance.US will notify you if and when OTC trading becomes available again,” Binance.US wrote in a blog post published today (Thursday).
However, the exchange did not specify any reason behind its abrupt decision to shutter the OTC trading platform. Moreover, the exchange assured that deposits and withdrawals will remain available and retail customers will still have access to the general trading platform.
OTC trading platforms target high-value customers who execute larger orders that cannot be fulfilled on retail trading platforms. These orders are matched directly and have more liquidity.
Apart from Binance.US, other crypto exchanges, including the ones in the United States, offer OTC platforms. However, none of them suspended their OTC services. Coinbase, which is also facing the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charges, continues offering OTC trading.
Delisting of Tokens
Another major step Binance.US took after the regulatory crackdown was to delist ten crypto trading pairs from its platform. All of these trading pairs are either listed against BTC or BUSD.
As listed by the exchange, the removed trading pairs are ATOM/BTC, BCH/BTC, DOT/BTC, LRC/BTC, MANA/BTC, UNI/BTC, VET/BTC, XTZ/BTC, HBAR/BUSD, and ONE/BUSD. Some of these pairs plummeted significantly following the lawsuit.
Now, the exchange lists 226 trading pairs, compared to more than 280 in April. In addition, it updated “the maximum order amount for Buy, Sell & Convert” to $10,000.
Initially, the exchange removed several other USDT pairs. However, that decision was retracted. The original list included about 100 trading pairs.
“Following community feedback, Binance.US will no longer remove any USDT Advanced Trading pairs. All cryptocurrencies and USDT pairs remain available to trade. Only select BTC and BUSD Advanced Trading pairs… will be removed,” the exchange noted.
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