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Mixed messages from Binance point to euro withdrawal chaos, Ripple heads back to court to fend off an SEC appeal, and Thailand threatens to shut down Meta over crypto scams.
A deleted post from an official Binance customer support account has raised questions about the safety of European users’ funds and their ability to withdraw from the exchange.
On Sunday (August 20), Binance Customer Support posted a reply on X (formerly Twitter) to a European user who said he was unable to withdraw funds in euros from the exchange.
“We regret to inform you that we have temporarily suspended EUR withdrawals and deposits via SEPA,” the account said. “Unfortunately, our provider can no longer support these transactions.”
In the same post, the account then added that Binance has “no specific timeframe” for the restoration of SEPA transfers.
“In the meantime, we recommend alternative methods for buying and selling crypto,” it said.
The post contradicted a previous statement from Binance published in June about the loss of Paysafe, its euro banking partner.
In that announcement, Binance said that Paysafe will cease providing services to Binance in September, but until then: “There will be no impact for existing Binance users.”
Speaking to VIXIO this week, a Binance spokesperson said that SEPA withdrawals continue as originally planned, but some users may be asked for “more information” as part of “routine compliance checks”.
But the poster who originally contacted Binance Customer Support was not the only one to experience difficulties with the SEPA service.
Other users claimed that they have been able to withdraw funds via SEPA, and a Cointelegraph poll found that almost 40 percent of 800 respondents had also had “issues” with SEPA.
Whatever the status of the service at present, the fact remains that Binance without a replacement for Paysafe from next month onwards, EU users will soon be unable to withdraw funds in their native currency.
For users in the US, UK and Australia, this has already been the case for several months, following the loss of Binance’s payment partners in those markets, and with no replacements forthcoming.
Checkout.com checks out of Binance deal
The reports of SEPA withdrawal issues also coincide with the termination of Checkout.com’s partnership with Binance, which was once the payment provider’s largest customer.
As reported by Forbes, Checkout.com has “cut short” its contract with Binance due to “reports of regulators’ actions and orders in relevant jurisdictions”.
According to Forbes, Checkout CEO Guillaume Pousaz sent two letters to Binance earlier this month, highlighting money laundering and other charges against Binance.
A Checkout.com spokesperson confirmed that both letters are genuine, and that the partnership officially ended on August 17.
In 2021, at the height of the crypto bull market, Checkout.com processed more than $2bn in Binance transactions in a single month, according to a Checkout.com insider.
Russian sanctions charges to follow?
Checkout.com’s termination of the partnership may prove to be timely, after new reports this week indicating that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is building a Russian sanctions evasion case against Binance.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the DOJ is looking to charge Binance for facilitating transfers to and from at least five Russian banks that were sanctioned following the invasion of Ukraine.
In total, Binance is believed to be handling more than $2bn a month in rouble-to-crypto trading volume, and is also facilitating about $428m per month in peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions.
All of this is allegedly taking place despite the fact that, in April last year, Binance said it would prohibit Russian nationals from accessing its trading services, in line with the EU’s fifth Russian sanctions package.
XRP tumbles following news of SEC appeal
In other news, this week the price of XRP tumbled on news of an appeal filed in court by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Last month, as covered by VIXIO, a federal judge ruled that XRP is not in itself a security, and that “programmatic sales” of XRP on public exchange were not securities transactions.
The judgment was seen as a huge win for Ripple and the crypto industry, given that it would take much of the crypto market out of the purview of the SEC if the same logic were applied to other tokens.
On the day the judgment was published, the price of XRP doubled from $0.46 to $0.91. But after the SEC filed a motion of appeal, the price of XRP came all the way back to $0.46.
Specifically, the SEC will appeal the court’s ruling that programmatic sales of XRP on public exchanges “could not lead investors to reasonably expect profits from the efforts of others”.
The SEC will also appeal the court’s ruling that “other distributions” of XRP, including as payment for services, were “legally insufficient” to constitute an “investment of money” under SEC v Howey.
Thailand threatens to shut down Meta over crypto scams
Finally, this week Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) said it is almost ready to file a lawsuit to shut down Meta over crypto and other investment scams.
In Q1 this year, the ministry said it recorded an average of 790 fraud cases per day on Meta, and an average of 591 cases per day in Q2, adding that more than 200,000 Thais have been affected by scams that operate on Meta.
The ministry will ask the courts to shut the social media platform down if it does not “take action” against investment scammers.
Alongside MDES, the action is also supported by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Stock Exchange of Thailand, whose logos are frequently used by scammers to deceive their victims.
