Binance to Halt Crypto Derivatives Offerings For Australian Residents by Year End

In a bid to comply with the country’s regulations, popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance has revealed that it will end its cryptocurrency derivatives offerings for Australian customers.

Announcing the unfortunate development in a blog post today, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange said Australian crypto traders will no longer be able to open and close positions on options, futures, and leverage trading by year’s end.

Australian Users to Close their Positions

Based on this, traders within the jurisdiction are required to close or adjust their positions in the above crypto derivative products from September 24, 2021 up until the next 90 days.

While traders will not be allowed to open new positions for crypto derivatives within this period, Binance users in Australia can top up their margin balances to prevent abrupt liquidation.

Australian traders who fail to comply with the instructions before midnight on December 23, will no longer be able to manually reduce their positions and all open positions will be automatically closed, Binance said.

The development is a follow-up of last month’s move from Binance, which saw the exchange barring Australians from opening new accounts to trade crypto derivatives, including options, margins, and leveraged tokens.

Binance stated at the time that the move was “in-line with its commitment to compliance and its plans to become a regulated financial institution.”

Binance Moves to Pacify Regulators

There has been widespread confusion among Australian traders between Binance and Binance Australia.

To be clear, Binance is a separate entity to Binance Australia, which is operated by InvestbyBit, a company registered under the laws of AUSTRAC as a digital currency exchange provider.

Recall that the former has been on the receiving end of a wider regulatory crackdown from several countries’ financial watchdogs, including Singapore, Italy, Thailand, Japan, Germany, and most recently the United States, which accused the exchange of conducting wash trading and market manipulation.

The exchange is working round the clock to remain in the good books of global regulators, as it has gone a step further to hire the services of previous traditional financial experts.

As reported last month, Binance said it has onboarded former U.S. Treasury Criminal Investigator Greg Monahan to act as its global money laundering reporting officer.