Binance Holdings Ltd. is shutting down peer-to-peer trading of the yuan, closing one of the last workarounds for Chinese users after Beijing’s blanket ban on cryptocurrency transactions.
The world’s biggest crypto exchange will terminate yuan-dominated trades on its over-the-counter platform on Dec. 31, it said in a statement Wednesday. The startup will also conduct checks and any users found in mainland China will only be allowed to withdraw funds from the platform.
Binance is joining a slew of crypto businesses in making plans to completely leave China after regulators said in September crypto services and transactions of all kinds are banned. Rival exchange Huobi has said it will remove existing users based in the country by the year-end.
While Binance had already exited the mainland China market in 2017, the firm in 2019 launched a peer-to-peer platform that lets users trade Bitcoin, Ether and Tether against the Chinese currency. That same year, it made its first strategic investment in China, joining a financing round that valued crypto-data site Mars Finance at about $200 million.
Beijing’s latest crypto ban has basically eliminated any hopes that exchanges and other platforms can stay in China. The Sept. 24 rules, issued by the central bank, barred all crypto transactions in China, including services provided by offshore exchanges. They also prohibit overseas platforms from hiring locally for roles like marketing, tech and payment.
