Binance Pauses UK Deposits and Withdrawals Following Partner's Service Halt – What's Going On?

cryptonews.com:

Major crypto exchange Binance has halted deposit and withdrawal services through bank transfers and card payments for customers in the UK after its partner, London-based online payments firm Paysafe, cut off support for transactions carried out in the British pound (GBP).

Binance’s partner said that its decision to stop supplying one of its products to the exchange’s UK customers resulted from the British regulators’ stance on digital assets. 

“We have concluded that the UK regulatory environment in relation to crypto is too challenging to offer this service at this time and so this is a prudent decision on our part taken in an abundance of caution,” Paysafe said in a statement obtained by Bloomberg. 

In reaction to this development, Binance stopped processing deposits and withdrawals in GBP for new users on March 13. The platform plans to suspend such transactions for all customers on May 22, according to a spokesperson for Binance. 

“Our team is working hard to find an alternative solution” for users who are impacted by the latest changes, the spokesperson said.

Paysafe claims that the UK share of its overall business with Binance is “small,” and that it would continue to cooperate with the platform in other parts of Europe, and also in Latin America. 

Meanwhile, as the ongoing turmoil in the banking sector related to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) continues to impact on the crypto markets, Gibraltar-based Xapo Bank has announced it enabled its customers to make GBP payments. The business is also planning to kick off Tether (USDC) services this week. 

"From today we have also added support for GBP through the Faster Payments network, meaning members will be able to make payments directly to U.K. wallets or banks,"