Binance Reviews for May 2022

Binance Futures delists coin-margined LUNA perpetual contracts. Binance suspended withdrawals for LUNA and UST amid the UST stablecoin losing its peg to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday. Amid collapsing Terra network’s cryptocurrencies Luna (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST), crypto exchange Binance continues deactivating related trading services. Binance’s derivatives arm Binance Futures has delisted coin-margined LUNA perpetual contracts, the firm officially announced on May 12. “Users are advised to close any open positions prior to the delisting time to avoid automatic settlement,” the statement by the platform reads. Binance Futures has also started conducting automatic settlements on the contracts, reducing the leverage tiers and updating margin tiers for coin-margined LUNA perpetual contracts. As such, the 8x leverage tier is now the max leverage tier available on Binance for LUNA perpetual contracts, replacing the earlier maximum available leverage of 21-25x. 11-20x leverage is reduced to 7x, while 6-10x leverage is replaced with a 6x leverage tier, according to the updated data. According to the announcement, existing positions opened before the update will not be affected. “Binance reserves the right to further change the max leverage and margin tiers for USDT-margined LUNA perpetual contracts without further notice,” the firm added. The latest trading updates on Binance Futures come soon after Binance suspended withdrawals for LUNA and UST on May 10 amid a massive selloff of tokens on the Terra network, with the UST stablecoin losing its peg to the United States dollar and crashing to $0.67.

I can argue for hours with anyone that would say that Binance is not the most progressive trading platform we have today. It has everything that both nascent and experienced traders need. The fees might not be the lowest, but they are definitely on the south side of the industry standard. CZ is doing a marvelous job of expanding the reach of Binance and adding new feats and stuff. I am a happy trader when I am not Binance, and I don't plan to migrate anywhere.

Binance launches Binance Bridge 2.0 to connect Ethereum-based tokens (both listed and unlisted) as BTokens to the BNB Chain. You can use your wrapped BTokens to explore the metaverse, blockchain-based games, decentralized finance (Defi) and more in the BNB Chain ecosystem, reducing the need for swaps and overcoming other interoperability barriers that have plagued blockchain. Therefore, Binance users will be able to use the bridge as a one-stop shop for all centralized finance (Cefi) and DeFi. The intent behind the first version of the Binance Bridge was to make multiple blockchains more interoperable. In addition, it allowed anyone to exchange their crypto assets into Binance Chain (now BNB Chain) and Binance Smart Chain (now BNB Smart Chain) wrapped tokens (and vice versa). The technique for swapping tokens (supported only on Binance.com) contains two categories in the first version: Peg-In and Peg-Out. Using Peg-In, users can swap native tokens for pegged tokens on the BNB Chain or BNB Smart Chain. Meanwhile, the Peg-Out technique allows users to convert pegged tokens to native tokens on the BNB Chain or the BNB Smart Chain. Regular deposit and withdrawal functionalities in the Binance Bridge version 2.0 allow users to bridge tokens between their original blockchains and the BNB Chain. In the future, Binance also wants to improve its mobile app to enable users to perform similar conversions with a single click. This article aims to discuss the integration of CeFi and DeFi through Binance Bridge 2.0 and how the Binance Bridge works.

Binance continues to lower barriers to cryptocurrency trading. With the intent to lead a new era of global financial inclusion, infrastructure providers must first prove that cryptocurrency usage is for everyone. Cryptocurrencies were designed to lead a new era of global financial inclusion, providing people access to financial services that they would otherwise be unable to have. Through a simplified financial structure, individuals and businesses around the world are finally having their needs met, and this transformation is believed to reduce poverty, improve prosperity and transform how the world transacts on a large scale. Although freedom of money is the objective, the technology is still in its early stages of adoption. Therefore, it is the exchanges and infrastructure providers that now hold a pivotal role in providing an initial touchpoint for users to engage with and learn of the benefits that come with digital currencies and the transformation they represent. Binance, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, has proven to be a leader in these aspects. Since its inception, the platform has continued to work hard to create an ecosystem that is inclusive of the entire blockchain community, from digital asset projects to merchants to crypto investors and traders of every level. With continued efforts to lower the barriers to entry in this space, features like their competitive pricing and fee structures, deep liquidity, reduced slippage and wide product selection, among other continuous improvements, have proven crucial to the growth of their community and the crypto industry alike.

Binance launches Binance Bridge 2.0 to integrate CeFi and DeFi. The service would allow users to bridge assets from any blockchain to BNB Chain. On Tuesday, centralized cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the rollout of Binance Bridge 2.0. The feature enables users to bridge assets from any blockchain, including tokens not listed on the Binance app, to the BNB Chain. Bridged tokens listed on Binance will be stored in the Funding or Spot Wallet, while unlisted bridged tokens will be transferred to the Funding Wallet only. Users can bridge-in or bridge-out tokens between their native blockchains and BNB Chain via regular deposit and withdrawal functions. In the future, Binance also plans to create a better version of its mobile app to allow users to facilitate such conversion via a single click.

Korean crypto exchanges are now in compliance with the Travel Rule. Complying with the rules puts South Korea ahead of the curve for regulating virtual assets, but may be harming the domestic industry with overbearing transfer restrictions between exchanges. South Korean crypto exchanges have reached the government-mandated deadline to come into compliance with the so-called Travel Rule, but not all industry players are pleased with the measure. Starting today, Korean exchanges will flag any crypto transfers worth more than roughly $821. Transfers higher than that value will be restricted to user-verified wallets and a select number of exchanges that have adopted their anti-money laundering system. The Travel Rule is a set of guidelines issued by the international financial watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) designed to help authorities track the movement of virtual assets between virtual asset service providers (VASP) such as crypto exchanges or digital asset issuers.

Thailand reportedly exempts 7% crypto tax for traders on authorized exchanges. The revised tax policy exempts crypto traders from the mandatory 7% VAT on authorized exchanges while offering tax exemptions of up to 10 years for crypto startup investors. The finance ministry of Thailand has reportedly eased up crypto tax regulations to promote investment in the digital asset market. The changes to the tax regulations come just a few weeks after the government scrapped its early plans of introducing a 15% tax on crypto gains. The new tax policy exempts crypto traders from the 7% value-added tax (VAT) on authorized exchanges, reported Reuters. The revised tax policy would also allow traders to offset their annual losses against gains for their crypto investment. This comes as big relief for traders, given most of the governments at this point are only looking to tax gains without taking into account the losses incurred by traders due to the crypto market volatility. The new tax exemptions would come into effect from April 2022 and last until December 2023. The new tax policy promises to offer tax exemptions of up to 10 years for investors who invest for at least two years in crypto startups in the country.

The leading global exchange by trading volume had a roller coaster of a ride in terms of regulations in 2021. After seeing a series of compliance warnings from nearly a dozen countries, Binance mended its way toward the end of the year. The exchange forged several new partnerships, but its growth in the Asia region was something that got everyone’s attention. Binance acquired an 18% stake in Singapore’s securities exchange Hg Exchange. However, the exchange withdrew its crypto license, which many claimed was due to non-compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering guidelines. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao called the reports as fear, uncertainty and doubt, or FUD, and maintained that Singapore remains one of the top priorities for the exchange. The exchange is now looking to reestablish its presence in Thailand after an early warning in 2021. The crypto exchange partnered with Gulf Energy Development PCL, a Thai holding company run by billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi. Binance is looking to open a crypto exchange in a joint venture with a consortium led by MDI Ventures, an investment arm of Telkom Indonesia. Apart from its dominant presence in South East Asia, Binance is also penetrating West Asia and the Middle East with a recent MOU with the Dubai World Trade Center Authority.

Binance resumes DOGE withdrawals days after Elon Musk’s comments. Binance users were unable to withdraw Dogecoin due to a “combination of unlikely factors,” the exchange said. Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by daily trading volumes, has resumed Dogecoin (DOGE) withdrawals following a system glitch caused by the DOGE wallet upgrade. The exchange officially announced on Monday that it had restarted DOGE withdrawals after experiencing a major issue where Binance users were unable to withdraw Dogecoin for 17 days. Additionally, 1,634 users on Binance were sent old transactions due to a conflict of several DOGE wallet versions. This happened due to a “combination of unlikely factors” and ultimately affected only Binance. The exchange wrote: “In short, if 1) your platform had listed DOGE all the way back in 2019, at v1.14.0 2) had transactions stuck in the wallet 3) had upgraded the wallet to v1.14.2 4) AND then updated to v1.14.5 — you can have an issue.”

Binance VC arm leads $60M round in cross-chain protocol Multichain. Shortly after rebranding from Anyswap last week, Multichain raised $60 million in a seed round led by Binance Labs. Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance cryptocurrency exchange, has led a financing round for the cross-chain protocol Multichain, previously known as Anyswap. Shortly after rebranding from Anyswap last week, Multichain has raised $60 million in a seed funding round led by Binance Labs, the firm officially announced on Dec. 21. Other participants in the raise included major VC firms and industry investors like Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Primitive Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Circle Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, HashKey and Magic Ventures. Apart from providing capital investment for Multichain, Binance is also building a stronger relationship with the cross-chain protocol. On Dec. 20, Multichain announced that it is now officially recommended as a tool to bridge bToken across chains through Binance’s smart contract platform, the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). BSC said that Multichain is “one of the biggest routers on BSC,” providing “non-custodial plus multi-party computation model to guarantee the security of on-chain assets.”

Binance partners with Indonesian telco to develop new crypto exchange. Binance has partnered with state-owned PT Telkom Indonesia to establish a digital asset exchange in the country. Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has partnered with MDI Ventures, PT Telkom Indonesia’s venture capital arm, to establish a crypto exchange platform. According to a joint announcement on Wednesday, the agreement will also seek to broaden blockchain adoption throughout Indonesia, which is home to about 240 million people. To assist with the development of the new exchange platform, Binance will provide asset management infrastructure and technology. The agreement will also seek to increase the application of blockchain technology in Indonesia more broadly. The new partnership enables Binance to grow its operations in a nation where it already has an investment in crypto trading platform Tokocrypto.

Binance Singapore arm acquires 18% stake in private stock exchange. Binance's most recent acquisition is still subject to some regulatory requirements. Binance Asia Services, the Singapore arm of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has acquired a stake in a local private securities exchange, Hg Exchange (HGX). On Dec. 7, the company officially announced an acquisition of a post-money 18% stake in HGX, a stock exchange licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Binance Singapore CEO Richard Teng said that the new investment will help Binance and HGX further expand the scale of products and services “supported by blockchain technology” in Singapore. “Crypto and traditional financial offerings continue to converge. We aim to work collaboratively with HGX to enhance the blockchain ecosystem in Singapore,” Teng stated.

Binance still sees 171M visitors in a month. Despite facing intense scrutiny and pushback from regulators across the globe in recent months, data shows that the centralized exchange Binance still towers over its competitors. According to data from Similar Web compiled by Finbold, Binance had the most web traffic out of all crypto exchanges in October with a total of 171 million visitors. The figure represents a 12% increase compared to the month before. Coinbase ranks second with 91 million visitors last month, and had a 31% surge in traffic compared to the month before. Notably the third most popular exchange is PancakeSwap, a DEX that operates on the Binance Smart Chain, with 25 million visitors and a 14% month-over-month increase. While Bybit sits at fourth with 24 million (down 8% from September). Coingecko data shows that Binance is well ahead of its competitors in terms of volume, with the platform seeing more than $33.3 billion over the past 24 hours. That figure is more than five times larger than the total of second-ranked Coinbase, which generated $6.6 billion worth of 24-volume. On Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that former Binance executives estimated that the firm could be worth up to $300 billion as a publicly-traded company. It is unclear when or how Binance will go public, considering its lack of a formal headquarters. However, CEO Changpeng Zhao said in September the Binance’s U.S. branch was looking at an initial public offering (IPO) in 2024.

Binance to launch $1B fund to develop BSC ecosystem. The announcement stated that the program is the largest ever announced in the crypto space. The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has announced a $1 billion accelerator fund to expand the capabilities of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem and advance mainstream adoption across the financial technology sector. The exchange showcased the eight-figure fund in a tiered development model across four specialist areas: Talent Development, Liquidity Incentive Program, Builder Program and Investment & Incubation Program. The announcement suggested that they will allocate $100M, $100M, $300M and $500M to each segment, respectively. The largest benefactor of the pot, the investment & incubation program, will focus on multi-chain expansion of the already burgeoning areas of the technological sphere. This includes various metaverses, gaming, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Maverick founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao — otherwise known as CZ on Twitter — shared a simple, yet effective perspective on the news. In the statement, the platform outlined high expectations for the advancement of interoperability between traditional and Web 3.0 infrastructures. “With collaborations from industry-leading organizations, the investment fund will target scaling blockchain technology for real-life use cases and will bridge the gap between crypto-blockchain and the current technical-financial sectors.” Binance Smart Chain was introduced to the market in September 2020 as a foundational launchpad to foster the development of decentralized applications, or dApps, compatible with the Ethereum blockchain through the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Since inception, the platform has grown in stature to service in excess of 1 million daily active users across a wide range of more than 900 dApps. One of the most notable decentralized exchanges, or DEX’s, built upon BSC is PancakeSwap which currently has a total value locked, or TVL, of 9.8 billion according to data from Defistation. Amid the insidious rise of hacks and breaches in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, space, Binance Smart Chain partnered with blockchain security firm ImmuneFi to offer bug bounties and other reward incentives to ethically-focused whitehat hackers and developers.

Binance users in Australia have 90 days to close their positions for futures, options and leveraged tokens. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, continues limiting its services amid the ongoing global regulatory scrutiny, announcing new trading restrictions in Australia. Existing Binance users in Australia will have 90 days to reduce and close their positions for products such as cryptocurrency futures, options and leveraged tokens, the exchange announced Monday. Effective from Friday, Australian users will no longer be able to increase or open new positions for derivatives products on Binance. Users will still be able to top-up their margin balances to prevent liquidations and margin calls, the announcement notes. After Dec. 23, Binance users in Australia will no longer be able to manually reduce or close their positions, as all remaining open positions will be closed. “We are committed to our industry for the long term and we want to ensure our product offerings are welcomed by users and local regulators,” a spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph. “We also monitor local regulatory requirements across different markets as Binance operates globally. We want to ensure the process for any transition we make is not disruptive,” the representative added. Binance’s latest trading suspensions in Australia follow a series of similar restrictions in other countries amid the exchange facing several warnings from multiple global regulators. In August, Binance reportedly halted crypto derivatives trading in Brazil, following similar suspensions on its Hong Kong operations. Previously, Binance suspended derivatives trading for users in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands as part of its broader plans to cease these products across Europe.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore placed Binance on its investor alert list on Sept.1 over concerns that the crypto exchange may have violated local payments regulations. Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced Sunday that it will roll back product offerings in Singapore amid warnings from financial regulators that the company may have violated payments laws. Beginning Sept. 9, Singaporeans will no longer be able to trade cryptocurrencies or receive payments denominated in the Singapore dollar, better known as SGD, according to a Sunday blog post. The Binance mobile app will also be removed from Singapore’s Apple and Google Play stores. The exchange said all SGD trading pairs will be removed at 04:00 UTC on Sept. 9, with users advised to complete all peer-to-peer trades 24 hours in advance of the deadline.

Binance US plans to close a major private funding round in the next two months to become more independent from Binance. Binance’s affiliate United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance US is targeting an initial public offering (IPO) in 2024, according to Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao. BinanceUS is planning to close a large private funding round in the next two months that would allow the firm to become more independent from the global exchange, Zhao said on Sept. 1 in an interview with tech publication The Information. Zhao is confident that the global crypto exchange will survive the ongoing regulatory crackdown by global regulators, and that Binance US will move toward a public listing in three years. “Binance.US is just going to do what Coinbase did,” Zhao stated. He said that Binance generated $800 million to $1 billion in profit last year. The news comes amid more global regulators raising concerns about Binance’s operations, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) adding Binance's website to its investor alert list on Sept. 1. The list provides a record of unregulated persons who “may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or regulated by MAS.” According to local reports, Binance Asia Services (BAS), the Singapore-based unit of Binance, operates as a separate entity and does not offer any services via Binance’s website, running a different platform, Binance.sg, instead. In June, the MAS said it was planning to review BAS’ application for a license under the Payment Services Act. Binance previously applied to operate in Singapore under the act in February 2020. The MAS did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. As previously reported, Binance has been under increased scrutiny from global regulators in recent months, with warnings being issued by authorities in countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, Thailand and others. The exchange has stressed its commitment to cooperating with regulators multiple times.

I find it hard to come up with a thing that I don't like about Binance. It is a great platform with a very capable CEO that has put together a hard-working team that constantly comes up with marvelous solutions. While other cryptocurrency exchanges have a pathetically small range of offered services, which usually goes no further than spot and margin trading, Binance has already rolled out futures trading as well as lending and staking programs. Moreover, now I can purchase crypto for fiat directly on the platform.

Binance will continue applying new withdrawal limits for existing users in phases starting from Aug. 4. The exchange expects to have adopted new withdrawal restrictions entirely by Aug. 23. Binance users who have completed full identity verification will be still able to withdraw up to 100 BTC in a day, or nearly $4 million at BTC prices at the time of writing. “Withdrawal limits refresh daily at 00:00 AM,” the announcement notes. Binance also rolled out its new tax reporting tool on Wednesday. The reporting system is an Application Programming Interface that enables Binance users to track their crypto transactions, transfer their transaction history to third-party vendors, and obtain instant overviews of their local tax liabilities. The new initiative is part of the exchange’s broader strategy to expand user protection and risk management protocols.

Binance stops stock token sales, effective immediately. The crypto exchange gave no indication as to the reason, stating only that it would be shifting its “commercial focus to other product offerings.” Binance’s highly popular stock tokens, a relatively recent offering, are being wound down immediately. In an announcement published on Friday, the exchange announced that “effective immediately,” stock tokens are unavailable for purchase on Binance.com. As of October 14, 2021, at 7:55 pm UTC, the exchange will no longer support stock tokens at all. Existing stock token holders will have some time to adjust: “Users who currently hold stock tokens may sell or hold them over the next 90 days. Users will no longer be able to manually sell or close their positions after 2021-10-14 19:55 (UTC). Thereafter all stock token positions on Binance.com will be closed at 2021-10-15 13:30 (UTC).” While unconfirmed as of the time of writing, Walter Bloomberg has claimed in a tweet that: If true, the development would confirm that mounting regulatory pressure on the world’s largest cryptocurrency platform is continuing to hit its operations hard. In late April, there had already been reports that European and British regulators were scrutinizing Binance’s offering of stock tokens — which represent fractions of equity shares in firms such as Tesla and Coinbase — for possible non-compliance with securities laws. While initially not commenting on Binance in particular, Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) went on record at the time, stating that: “Fundamentally [...] the following applies: if tokens are transferable, can be traded at a crypto exchange and are equipped with economic entitlements like dividends or cash settlements, they represent securities and are subject to the obligation to publish a prospectus.” BaFin soon mentioned Binance explicitly, noting its absence of published prospectuses for the stock tokens. Spring and summer of 2021 have been difficult for Binance on the regulatory front, with multiple countries taking action against it or reportedly investigating its operations from various compliance perspectives. In the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority ordered the exchange to halt all “regulated activity” in the country in June. That same month, Japan’s Financial Services Agency accused Binance of operating in the country without proper registration, and new measures against crypto exchanges in the Canadian province of Ontario prompted the exchange to cease all its operations there.