Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has suffered billions in withdrawals in the wake of a major crackdown by US regulators.
According to Nansen data shared by the Wall Street Journal, up to two billion dollars have been withdrawn from customer accounts in the past few days alone.
However, runs of this volume are not uncommon for the exchange, with Binance head Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao noting that outflows were higher in turbulent days following FTX’s November 2022 collapse.
Binance’s On-Chain Balance Stands at $64B, Nansen Data Shows.Blockchain is transparent.#Binance handles billions of both deposits and withdrawals daily. We saw a bit of net outflow yesterday, smaller than "BUSD" or "FTX" days. https://t.co/KFU4twVPiR
— CZ ???? Binance (@cz_binance) March 29, 2023
CryptoQuant data shared by co-founder Ki Young Ju suggests that Binance’s reserves of benchmark cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ether remain strong, leading to accusations of ‘FUD’ (an anagram for fear, uncertainty and doubt popular among the crypto community).
Binance:Processing deposits and withdrawals for billions of dollars of crypto assets every day
Traders are pulling billions of dollars from @binance
People:
Bank run on Binancehttps://t.co/66yVQGkrrk https://t.co/HZ8nZBDQLu pic.twitter.com/lIEArMGzrA
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) March 29, 2023
While the gravity of Binance’s outflows is a matter of debate, the firm encountered fresh regulatory scrutiny this week, with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accusing CZ and chief compliance officer Samuel Lim of “wilful evasion” of US commodities law.
Commissioner Kristin N Johnson accused the pair of “operating the enterprise through a complex web of firms with the goal of using this operational infrastructure to shield Binance from complying with existing regulations in any of the jurisdictions where the firm operates”.
The Caymans-registered exchange has routinely been a punching bag for hawkish regulators, yet it remains the largest crypto exchange by a considerable margin.
Binance’s BNB coin, which is used to pay gas fees on the BNB blockchain and gives discounts on exchange trading fees, has not been overly impacted by the recent events or 'FUD', and even managed to add another percent in Wednesday’s trading session.
Binance’s BUSD stablecoin BUSD, on the other hand, lost over 5% of its market capitalisation in the past seven days. Year to date, BUSD’s market cap is over 50% lower- from US$16.5bn to US$7.7bn as of March 29.
BUSD, which is developed in partnership with blockchain company Paxos, suffered a major blow when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deemed it an unregistered security and banned its issuance to US customers.