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Amid escalating regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges, Binance experienced a 57% drop in its weekly Bitcoin trading volume since the beginning of the month, signaling potential turbulence for the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
This downturn coincides with mounting legal challenges and increased regulatory oversight targeting the exchange on a global scale.
Binance US's weekly trade volume has fallen from a yearly high of nearly $5bn to just $40mn. pic.twitter.com/1imacBf9cA
— Kaiko (@KaikoData) September 18, 2023
Regulatory struggles continue for Binance
The exchange has been grappling with a series of legal and regulatory setbacks, including lawsuits, license denials, and voluntary market exits. Authorities from the U.S. Department of Justice are said to be considering filing charges against Binance. Additionally, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission initiated legal action against Binance, its American subsidiary Binance.US, and its founder Changpeng Zhao (commonly known as CZ) three months ago. The allegations involve violations of multiple federal securities laws.
September has been a challenging month for the exchange. Amidst the regulatory pressure, several high-profile executives of the exchange have resigned. However, Zhao has denied any challenges for the firm, saying that these resignations are just part of employees moving to new roles and opportunities.
Some of our team members are growing into bigger roles, some outside of #Binance. Some are doing new exciting ventures. I even made intros/references for many of them. We are supportive of everyone. We are one community.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) September 6, 2023
This also creates more growth opportunities within…
On Sept. 7, Binance made a notable policy change by discontinuing its zero-fee promotion for Bitcoin trading against the TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoin. This trading pair had been among the most actively traded on the platform, and the policy shift could be a contributing factor to the observed decline in trading volume.
It’s not just the global platform that’s feeling the heat. Binance’s U.S. offshoot, Binance.US, has also seen a dramatic reduction in trading activity. According to data from crypto analytics company Kaiko, the weekly aggregate trading volume on Binance.US has nosedived to $40 million, a stark contrast to the nearly $5 billion recorded earlier this year. This represents an approximate 99% drop in trading volume.