Binance to Stop Offering Crypto Futures and Other Derivatives in 3 European Countries | CoinCodex

Key highlights:

• Binance is winding down its crypto derivatives offering for customers from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands
• The exchange is also looking to scale down its derivatives offering in the rest of Europe
• The move to restrict derivatives in certain European countries is yet another in a series of decisions Binance has recently made in response to regulatory pressure

Binance will no longer offer crypto derivatives in 3 European countries

The Binance cryptocurrency exchange is shutting down its cryptocurrency derivatives offering for customers in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. 

Per Binance’s announcement, customers from these three countries are no longer able to open new positions on cryptocurrency futures and other derivatives offered by the exchange. Binance also added that users from these countries that still have open derivatives positions will receive a notification at a future date, and will then have a 90-day window to close their positions.

According to a report from Yahoo Finance, Binance is also planning to scale down access to its derivatives products in other European countries. 

Binance Futures is the world’s largest cryptocurrency derivatives platform by trading volume. The exchange’s BTC-USDT perpetual contract has seen $22 billion worth of trading volume in the last 24 hours alone, and has $2.13 billion in open interest. 

Binance’s move to wind down its derivatives offering in three European countries is another in a series of decisions the exchange has made in response to the heavy scrutiny it has been receiving from regulators worldwide.

Some of the other measures that Binance has taken recently was to discontinue its tokenized stocks offering, and to cut the maximum daily withdrawal limit from 2 BTC to 0.06 BTC for users that have only completed basic identity verification. The exchange has also limited the maximum leverage on its futures contracts to 20x.

However, regulators are still exerting pressure on the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange. Malaysian regulator Securities Commission Malaysia has ordered Binance to stop its operations in the country within 14 days, starting from July 26. The securities regulator alleges that Binance is illegally operating a digital asset exchange in the country.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has recently commented that the company is undergoing a transition from a being a startup to being a financial institution. Accordingly, the exchange is looking to set up regional headquarters across the globe and apply for licenses wherever possible.