Crypto Exchange Binance Stops Derivatives In South Africa Amid Regulatory War

Binance’s regulatory war continues as the crypto exchange announces it will no longer offer derivatives products in South Africa.

Binance Ceases Derivatives-Related Products For Users In South Africa

As per an announcement on the crypto exchange’s website, users from South Africa can no longer access derivatives offerings on the platform.

These products include Futures, Options, Margin, and Leveraged Tokens. Binance has already stopped new account creation for these offerings, while users who already have accounts will get 90 days for reducing and closing their positions related to these.

“Users will be able to top-up margin balances to prevent margin calls and liquidations, but they will not be able to increase or open new positions,” clarifies the crypto exchange.

If any user fails to reduce or close their positions before 6 January 2022 11:59 PM (UTC), Binance will automatically do so.

The news comes after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) of South Africa posted a public warning regarding the crypto exchange just last month.

However, the country certainly isn’t the only one to do so. Over the last few months, Binance has received a barrage of warnings from regulators all over the world.

Related Reading | Binance Ceases Spot Crypto Trading And Other Services In Singapore

Some of the other nations to have put regulatory pressure on the crypto exchange include Italy, UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Currently, Binance is the largest digital currency exchange in the world by market volume. It’s available in most of the world, but till now it hadn’t gotten official approval from various regional regulators.

To clear its regulatory woes, the crypto platform has decided to get licenses in various regions and work with regulators there to prevent any trouble.

Related Reading | Binance Charity Launches NFT Tree Planting Project ‘Tree Millions’ to Plant 10M Trees Worldwide

The firm says on its website:

Our aim is to create a sustainable ecosystem around blockchain technology and digital assets. Binance welcomes developments to our industry’s regulatory framework as they pose opportunities for the market players to have greater collaboration with the regulators. We are committed to working constructively in policy-making that seeks to benefit every user.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, BTC’s price floats around $56.6k, up 17% in the last seven days. Over the past thirty days, the crypto has gained 24% in value.

Here is a chart showing the trend in the price of Bitcoin over the last five days:

Bitcoin seems to be keeping up an overall uptrend | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Earlier, Binance reduced the crypto withdrawal limits for non-KYC users to just 0.4 BTC (from 2 BTC before). The move seems to have been taken in view of regulation for some regions of the world.

Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com