Key points to remember
- Binance is terminating its Australian financial services license.
- Australian residents will have until April 21 to remove open positions.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said only 104 customers would be affected by the change.
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Binance’s Australian Financial Services License is terminated, meaning Australian residents will no longer be able to open derivatives positions on the exchange.
104 users impacted
Binance has its hands full with regulators around the world.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission announcement today, the world’s leading crypto exchange Binance would no longer allow Australian customers to hold commercial crypto derivatives.
According to the press release, ASIC yesterday received a request from Oztures Trading Pty Ltd – trading as Binance Australia Derivatives – to terminate its Australian financial services license. The decision to end derivatives trading for Australian residents was therefore made by Binance itself.
From April 14, Australian residents will no longer be able to open new derivatives positions on the platform, or increase existing ones. All remaining open positions will be closed by Binance on April 21.
ASIC said it had conducted a “targeted review” of Binance’s operations in Australia. “It is extremely important that AFS licensees classify retail and wholesale customers in accordance with the law,” said ASIC President Joe Longo. “Retail clients who trade in crypto derivatives enjoy important rights and consumer protections under Australia’s financial services laws, including access to external dispute resolution through the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.”
Binance stipulated in its license cancellation terms that the decision would not impact the exchange’s requirement to remain a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority until April 2024.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance caught on Twitter to indicate that Binance’s license loss would only affect 104 users, and the decision had no impact on Binance’s Australian spot trading platform.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this article, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.