New users will no longer be able to fund their accounts with British Pounds.
Current customers would retain access to their British pound funds.
Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it would stop accepting deposits and withdrawals in British pounds sterling as of May 22 unless it can secure a new service provider. According to an email issued to clients on Monday, the British partner that Binance employs for Faster Payments Service transactions, Skrill Limited, will no longer accept GBP.
A representative for Binance said that as of Monday afternoon, new users will no longer be able to fund their accounts with British Pounds. They did, however, reassure current customers that they would retain access to their British pound funds.
The spokesperson stated:
“This change affects less than 1% of Binance users. However, we know that these services are valued by our users and our team is working hard to find an alternative solution for them. We will share updates on this as and when we are able.”
Irregular Relationship With GBP
Binance’s relationship with GBP has been sporadic, to say the least. Prior to the introduction of its U.K.-based trading platform, the firm began offering GBP trading pairs in 2020. Binance Jersey, positioned on an island between England and France with low tax rates, allowed UK residents to trade pounds for cryptocurrencies at the time.
As of June 2021 however, the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom demanded that Binance Markets Ltd, the company’s UK subsidiary, cease any regulated activity without obtaining prior written authorization.
Users were unable to add British pounds or Euros to their accounts until March 2022. Next, in December, Binance reinstated GBP and EUR transactions via PaySafe’s Skrill as its fiat partner.