Binance key payments partner Clear Junction suspends deposits and withdrawals

• Another key payments partner has decided to suspend deposits and withdrawals to Binance.
• The payments processor cited the FCA’s notice to the leading crypto exchange behind the decision to halt processing transactions.
• Speculators believe that users’ losses due to the exchange’s outages could be the reason behind growing regulatory scrutiny. 

Challenges continue to arise as Binance faces another payments processor that has decided to halt processing transactions for the leading cryptocurrency exchange. 

Binance’s regulatory challenges see no end in sight

Global payments solutions provider Clear Junction announced that it has made the decision to stop facilitating payments related to the digital asset exchange. 

According to Adam Samson from the Financial Times, the move has been made in light of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) statement that the crypto firm cannot undertake any regulated activity in the country.

Clear Junction is licensed under the FCA and has stated that it aims to act in “full compliance” with the authority’s regulations toward Binance. 

In late June, the British financial watchdog sent out a notice that Binance Markets Limited (BML) must stop its UK-based services. The crypto exchange declared that BML was a separate entity and that the platform’s services would not be affected. 

A statement from Clear Junction noted that the firm has decided to suspend payments in British pounds and euros, while deposits and withdrawals would also no longer be supported. 

The payments provider is one of many entities that have followed the FCA’s move. The leading crypto exchange has also suspended cash deposits made through the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) last week. While Binance said that this move is temporary, 36 countries that use SEPA were unable to use the system to transfer cash to the exchange. 

British bank Barclays also informed its customers that credit and debit card payments to Binance were no longer supported. Both Barclays and Santander, which also blocked deposits to Binance, stated that the move was to protect customers and to “keep their money safe.”

Apart from Binance’s woes in Europe, regulators in Asia, including those in Thailand and Japan, have also issued similar warnings to the crypto exchange. 

There has been speculation that the increase in warnings Binance has received from regulators was due to the collective complaints from investors who have suffered massive losses during times of extreme volatility in the crypto market. 

Since Binance operates in many jurisdictions around the world, with no headquarters, traders that have been affected by the crypto exchange’s outages have been struggling to figure out whom to sue. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, there is a group of over 700 traders who have joined together with the help of a lawyer in France in an attempt to recover their losses. 

---