Binance.US announced today (on Tuesday) the suspension of USD deposits and indirectly urged users to withdraw their fiat deposits from the platform. The banking partners of the exchange will pause fiat withdrawal services by June 13.

Binance.US Faces Further Crisis

“In an effort to protect our customers and platform, today we are suspending USD deposits and notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023. We encourage customers to take appropriate action with their USD,” Binance.US wrote in a notice.

The US platform is now moving to be a crypto-only exchange. Furthermore, it assured that services like trading, staking, deposits, and withdrawals in crypto would be operational.

“To be clear, we maintain 1:1 reserves for all customer assets. Any downtime in processing withdrawals may be the result of elevated volumes and weekend bank closures,” the exchange added.

SEC’s Action against Binance

The move came after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formally charged Binance, its two US affiliates and the CEO, Changpeng Zhao with various charges, including commingling customer funds, running an illegal exchange, and listing unregistered securities.

According to the exchange, the suspension of the fiat services was pushed back as the banking partners of Binance.US were facing regulatory pressure for working with the exchange.

Earlier this year, two banking partners of Binance.US, Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank, collapsed. Later, the exchange reportedly offered fiat-based services using intermediary banks and was in search of a direct banking partner.

Meanwhile, the Australian subsidiary of Binance was facing trouble with its banking partners. The subsidiary first suspended Australian dollar deposits and then withdrawals as its local payment service provider stopped support. Since then, Binance Australia has been looking for an alternate banking partner to reinstate services.