Binance to cease crypto futures and derivatives in Australia
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, is in a bid to address regulatory scrutiny by global governments, the latest in series being its new trading restrictions in Australia.
According to its September 20 announcement, Binance’s existing customer base in Australia would now have 90 days to both reduce and close their positions for crypto futures and leveraged tokens.
The new decision goes into effect starting Friday, when Australian users of Binance would no longer be allowed to increase or open any new positions for derivative products on the platform. However, users would be able to top-up their margin balances in order to prevent liquidations and margin calls.
After December 23, Binance customers in Australia would not be able to manually reduce or close their positions because all the remaining open positions would be closed.
A spokesperson for Binance said that they are committed to the crypto industry “for the long term,” and they want to ensure that their offerings are equally “welcomed by users and local regulators.”
The latest series of updated offerings in Australia by Binance follows a string of similar restrictions in other countries like Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.
Binance had been under legal scrutiny from a number of global governments receiving warnings of closure and restrictions. In August, Binance had halted crypto derivatives trading in Brazil, following suspensions in its Hong Kong businesses.
Earlier, Binance had also suspended derivatives trading for its customers in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy as part of its greater plans to altogether cease the product across Europe.
