Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues restricting support for some of its trading services amid an ongoing regulatory crackdown.
Binance officially announced Monday that the exchange would delist margin trading pairs for three fiat currencies: the euro, the Australian dollar and the British pound sterling.
According to the announcement, Binance will suspend the mentioned fiat trading pairs on Aug. 10 and then switch to automatic settlement and cancel all related pending orders. The isolated margin trading pairs will have been entirely delisted from the exchange by Aug. 12.
The latest trading restriction comes in line with Binance’s aggressive efforts to curb trading risks alongside its recent decision to significantly limit leverage trading, reducing maximum leverage positions from 125x to 20x on Binance Futures.
“Margin trading carries a substantial risk and the possibility of both significant profits and losses. Past gains are not indicative of future returns. All of your margin balance may be liquidated in the event of extreme price movement,” the announcement notes.
Crypto margin trading is a method of trading cryptocurrencies through borrowing funds and allowing traders to access bigger capital to leverage their positions. Similar to Binance Futures, Binance’s margin trading service was launched in July 2019.
The exchange specifically lets users open a position with their capital and the number of assets they want to purchase by automatically lending them funds requiring to open a position based on maximum applicably leverage. The exchange also automatically deducts the repay amount and other charges while closing a position.
Related: Binance Futures to limit leverage to 20x for existing users
The news comes amid Binance facing increased scrutiny from global regulators and financial institutions recently. The exchange has been served multiple warnings from authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and other countries. A number of British financial institutions, such as Barclays and NatWest bank, has also started blocking payments to Binance since late June.
According to a Sunday report by the Financial Times, some crypto funds have also retracted from trading on Binance amid the accelerating regulatory crackdown on the crypto exchange, with crypto-focused investment firm Tyr Capital and fellow hedge fund ARK36 cutting exposure to Binance. The global regulatory pushback and uncertainty “should raise red flags for anyone keeping serious capital at the exchange,” ARK36’s executive director Ulrik Lykke said.