Binance Singapore To Shut Shop; Close Accounts By Feb 13

Binance Asia Services Ltd. (BAS) has pulled out it’s application for a permit to operate a cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore. The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world has decided to cease activity in the the country and close down its trading platform by February 13th.

Binance has announced in an emailed statement that it will wind down its Singapore operations and also withdraw its Digital Payment Tokens (DPT) services by the 13th of February 2020. The exchange’s local affiliate has withdrawn its application to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to operate a crypto trading platform in the South-Asian country.

Withdrawal of Licensing Efforts

This move will indeed end the speculation that the financial hub of South East Asia would become the global headquarters for Binance. 

According to an official post, on 13th December, the cryptocurrency exchange will stop new user registration, crypto and currency deposits as well as trading with immediate effect. Active users will, however, be able to buy and sell crypto using their existing assets until the 12th of January 2020. All accounts must be closed by the 13th of February.  The emailed statement also stated that the users will be notified as to what steps need to be taken further. 

Richard Teng, CEO of Binance Singapore, said,

“We always put our users first, so our decision to close Binance.sg was not taken lightly,” 

He further quoted that the prime concern of this hour is to help the users  of the cryptocurrency exchange transition their holdings to other wallets or other third-party services.  

Binance’s Stormy Sail

The local arm of the cryptocurrency exchange giant was one of the 170 crypto firms that had dropped an application to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a license to provide crypto-related services. Binance was operating under a temporary exemption during the licensing procedure. 

The exchange has also mentioned that it will refocus to set up a blockchain hub in Singapore which would offer services such as blockchain education, incubation programmes and investment opportunities. 

This comes a week after BAS made an investment in Hg Securities, a Singapore-based private securities exchange firm for an 18% stake. As per Changpeng Zhao CEO of Binance,

“This investment made our own application somewhat redundant,”

He further added that the platform will continue to work through its partners to foster the crypto ecosystem in Singapore. This acquisition was thought to help ease the regulatory hurdles faced by Binance. Furthermore, this contract is subject to regulatory requirements.