BNB Rallies While Binance CEO Bows To Regulators Amid Another Setback

Binance coin (BNB) is rallying despite a fresh blow for the Binance crypto exchange after it was forced to “temporarily suspend” payments from the EU-operated Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) network. Also, the Binance founder and CEO Chengpeng “CZ” Zhao said that the company “humbly welcomed” more “constructive guidance” from regulators and “more capable talents and experienced advisors.”

At 07:24 UTC, BNB, ranked 4th by market capitalization, trades at USD 335 and is up by almost 5% in a day, becoming the second-best performer among the top 10 assets today. The price is up by 11% in a week, despite negative news from regulators and banks, trimming its monthly losses to less than 15%. The price is still down by around 50% from its all-time high, registered in May.

The exchange has endured a torrid past few weeks – and has run into regulatory issues in the UK, Germany and elsewhere. Regulators in Singapore have vowed to increase their scrutiny of the platform, while financial authorities in the Cayman Islands have denied reports that Binance is based on its territory. Thai regulators have also begun legal proceedings against the platform for operating without a license, while the exchange also received a warning from Japanese regulators.

In a new setback, the platform told its European customers that it would “temporarily suspend” euro bank deposits from SEPA as of Wednesday morning UTC, confessing that the development was due to “events beyond our control,” although SEPA withdrawals were “unaffected.”

Reuters reported that the exchange told its customers:

“Any deposits attempted via SEPA in the meantime will be returned within seven working days.”

But the CEO tried to put a positive spin on recent developments in an open letter to customers.

He wrote that “more regulations” are “positive signs that an industry is maturing, because this sets the foundation for a broader population to feel safe to participate in crypto.”

However, he concluded that Binance's “lofty vision wont be possible without the support and guidance of regulators and policymakers who understand that innovation has the most long-term sustainable impact when tempered with frameworks to protect all participants.”

In either case, the CEO added that the exchange was taking three key steps to expand its compliance capabilities, namely:

• Widening its international compliance team. Binance said it plans to “double our team size by the end of the year, with qualified and experienced advisors to support.”

• Boosting its “already robust compliance partnerships” with tech partners and bodies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol.

• “Localizing” its “operations and business to comply with local regulations.” The exchanges CEO wrote: “We aim to continue our efforts in working with regulators collaboratively to meet their concerns as the industry continues to grow.”