Digital assets are inclusive of securities, commodities, utilities, and all of the above. For crypto exchanges, the ability to trade security tokens makes sense – if you are fully compliant.
Yesterday, the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance announced it will no longer support stock tokens. While it is not fully clear if this decision will have any significant impact on its operations, what is obvious is that growing scrutiny from global regulators is compelling Binance to retrench and reassess. The same day that Binance announced the exit from stock tokens the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission issued a statement that Binance may be offering stock tokens to investors in Hong Kong without appropriate regulatory approval.
In a “Fellow Binancians” statement, the platform said:
“As the crypto ecosystem evolves, and as Binance grows with the community, we are continually evaluating our products and working with our partners to meet our users’ needs. Today, we are announcing that we will be winding down support for stock tokens on Binance.com to shift our commercial focus to other product offerings. Effective immediately, stock tokens are unavailable for purchase on Binance.com, and Binance.com will no longer support any stock tokens after 2021-10-14 19:55 (UTC).
Binance said that any stock token holders may sell them over the next 90 days. For EEA users, the tokens may be migrated to CM-Equity AG (in Germany) “once its new portal is established” in the next few weeks. Additional KYC measures will be requested by CM-Equity AG to complete the transition.”
In recent weeks, multiple jurisdictions have halted or questioned Binance’s activity. Last month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority announced a cessation of Binance activity in their jurisdiction.
