TL;DR
- Binance, recently penalized $4.3 billion by the US DOJ for money laundering and with its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, fined $50 million, has appointed Richard Teng as the new CEO but remains operational.
- The exchange announced the removal of ten BUSD trading pairs, including APT/BUSD and AXS/BUSD, effective November 24, citing reasons like poor liquidity and trading volume; it plans to discontinue support for BUSD by early 2024.
- This follows a previous delisting of 15 Russian ruble trading pairs, possibly aligning with Binance’s intention to exit its Russia business, recently agreeing to sell it to CommEX.
The Affected Assets
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – Binance – has been in the spotlight lately, agreeing to settle money-laundering charges with the US DOJ and planning to pay a whopping $4.3 billion penalty. On top of that, the former CEO – Changpeng Zhao (CZ) – resigned from his position and is required to pay a $50 million personal fine for failing to implement appropriate anti-money laundering procedures.
Despite the turbulence, the company assured that business is not affected, appointing Richard Teng as the new boss of the exchange. Just a day after the whole drama, Binance announced it will remove ten spot trading pairs, including APT/BUSD, AXS/BUSD, BAKE/BUSD, CFX/BUSD, CHZ/BUSD, ETC/BUSD, FIL/BUSD, GAS/BUSD, TRB/BUSD, and USTC/BUSD.
The amendments are scheduled to go into effect on November 24. The marketplace did not provide an exact reason for the delisting, saying it periodically reviews trading pairs and removes some of them due to “poor liquidity and trading volume.”
It’s worth noting that all of the removed are BUSD trading pairs, with Binance previously revealing it will discontinue support for the stablecoin at the beginning of 2024. The company has advised users to convert their BUSD holdings to other assets prior to February 2024.
The Previous Delisting Spree
Last week, Binance removed additional 15 spot trading pairs, which were all tied to the Russian ruble. Some of those included ADA/RUB, SOL/RUB, and XRP/RUB.
One reason behind the organization’s move could be its intention to completely cease deposits in the aforementioned fiat currency. Not long ago, the exchange entered into an agreement to sell the entirety of its Russia business to the crypto platform CommEX.
LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!