Binance has informed its users that wire transfers for Bank of America “Signature Bank” customers are being discontinued. Therefore, these restrictions only affect clients of cryptocurrency exchanges whose bank accounts are in US dollars. In concrete terms, bank transfers can be made for the purchase or sale of cryptocurrencies, under certain conditions.
0.1% of customers are interested
In an email sent to customers on January 21, Binance informed its users that bank transfers to some of its retail customers may be disrupted. The suspension will take effect on February 1.
In an interview with Asian market media, Binance clarified that one of its “trusted banking partners, Signature Bank,” informed the cryptocurrency exchange that it “would no longer support any of its customers.” for an amount of less than $100,000.
“Our banking partner [signature bank] announced that it was no longer able to process SWIFT dollar transactions of less than $100,000 as of February 1. This is the case for all exchanges that are part of their clientele. »
At this stage, the restrictions only affect individual customers of Signature Bank in New York, who therefore use bank accounts denominated in US dollars. These measures also do not apply to corporate accounts on Binance.
A Binance spokesperson told Blockworks that less than 0.1% of users currently use Signature Bank. However, it has not been clarified whether this is 0.1% of all Binance customers or only customers using USD.
The cryptocurrency exchange is reportedly actively seeking a new SWIFT partner, but until Binance finds a workaround, customers who meet the aforementioned criteria will experience these outages.
Monopoly of the SWIFT network
SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is an international payment network. The Belgian company is a cooperative owned by its members and the distribution of voting rights depends on the number of transactions.
It is used by “over 11,000 banks in over 200 countries” and processes 22 million international transactions daily. It is a payment system that connects banks for international transactions.
The SWIFT network is a weapon of mass destruction, enabling regime change at the touch of a button.
Moscow has been preparing for years, building its own international payment system. China has also launched the CIPS (Cross Border Interbank Payment System).
No one should be surprised if one day the SWIFT network cuts ties with all exchanges. But that seems unlikely when hundreds of millions of people are already accepting Bitcoin. Not to mention the Bitcoin network and the Lightning network, which together form a direct competitor to the SWIFT network.
Signature Bank wants to abandon cryptocurrencies
Binance isn’t the only cryptocurrency exchange affected by Signature Bank’s decision. The bank will apply these restrictions to all customers who buy and sell cryptocurrencies via crypto platforms. Other exchanges include OKX, Bitstamp, Bithumb, eToro, Huobi and Kraken.
According to a January 22 Bloomberg article, the bank has imposed these restrictions because it wants to reduce its exposure to cryptocurrencies.
Binance emphasized that its customers will still be able to use their unlimited credit or debit cards, or make bank transfers, to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using any of the cryptocurrency exchange’s supported fiat currencies. just like the euro.
Additionally, Binance will continue to process transfers to and from other cryptocurrency exchanges as usual. Therefore, these restrictions do not apply to Binance customers with Euro bank accounts in France.
These measures taken by Signature Bank, and the consequences for the users of the crypto platform, can be seen as one of the consequences of the collapse of FTX, which caused some American banks to turn their backs on cryptocurrencies.