Binance suspends withdrawal in the US

The crypto space had been inundated with the drama between regulators in the United States and Binance/Coinbase this week. With the unending chaos, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the regulation of crypto exchanges and has put pressure on cryptocurrency prices.

On Friday, in a not-too-positive development, Binance.US announced the suspension of US dollar deposits and notified its customers of an incoming pause to fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13.

According to Binance, it was forced to take this action amid “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics” from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Here are major crypto stories from around the world this week 

United Kingdom releases crypto marketing rules 

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority has unveiled a series of rules aimed at restricting crypto firms in the country from engaging in certain marketing tactics in the interest of consumer protection. 

The new rules mandate that crypto will be classified as restricted mass market investments. The new classification will require crypto advertisements and marketing campaigns to include clear risk warnings. The UK regulator will also ban marketing promotions such as “refer a friend”, a scheme where crypto users are rewarded for recruiting their friends to the platform to buy crypto. 

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The regulator stated that the new rules are set to take effect on October 8, 2023. 

Do Kwon can be imprisoned in two countries 

According to a senior prosecutor heading the Do Kwon investigation in South Korea, Dan Sunghan, the Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO may be subject to multiple sentences in the United States and South Korea. 

In a conversation with Bloomberg, when asked about the possibility of Kwon having to face a trial in both the US and South Korea, Sunghan believed “such a scenario is an option.” A convict is subject to multiple cross-border sentences when they are yet to be prosecuted for some of the crimes in one of the jurisdictions, he explained.

Recall that Do Kwon was held by Montenegro authorities on March 23 after he was caught trying to fly out of the country using fake documents. Soon after, both the United States and South Korean authorities requested his extradition to their respective countries. 

Binance US suspends withdrawal

Earlier today, Binance US announced the suspension of USD deposits and urged users to withdraw their fiat deposits from the platform because the banking partners of the exchange will pause fiat withdrawal services by June 13.

In a notice:

“In an effort to protect our customers and platform, today we are suspending USD deposits and notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023. We encourage customers to take appropriate action with their USD,”

Notably, this move is coming after the US SEC formally charged Binance, its two US affiliates and CEO Changpeng Zhao with various charges, including commingling customer funds, running an illegal exchange, and listing unregistered securities.

FTX argues against release of customer list 

A member of the FTX restructuring team, Kevin Cofsky in a court hearing released on Thursday has argued that the list of around nine million FTX customers is “extraordinarily valuable” and could harm the crypto exchange’s sale value if released.

According to Kevin, if competitors were to gain knowledge of FTX’s customers it “would be detrimental” to the exchange’s restructuring efforts. He said:

“We believe that the existing customer base is extraordinarily valuable and our understanding is based on our research and having looked at the costs incurred by other crypto companies specifically to solicit customers.”

The list of customers is currently under seal but an objection to the decision was filed by mainstream media outlets which argued that the press and public have “a presumptive right of access to bankruptcy filings.”

Metaverse was omitted in Apple Launch

Apple revealed its AR headset called the Vision Pro at the WWDC conference on Monday and the company did not make mention of the ‘Metaverse’ which has led to various reactions in the web3 community.

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WWDC 2023: Unveiling Apple Vision Pro +other product updates

In the buildup to the much-rumored and highly-anticipated AR headset, which it calls the Vision Pro, the crypto community was expecting some announcements related to the metaverse but it came as a disappointment that the concept, which has lost steam in recent months, was not mentioned at all.

That’s all from us this week, see you same time next week.