Binance Singapore has announced that it has withdrawn its application for a license permit by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to operate in the country and will cease operations in the financial center until February 13.
Users will be able to buy and sell crypto using their existing assets until January 12, and all accounts must be closed by February 13.
Binance Asia Services (BAS), the exchange’s local subsidiary, was one of nearly 170 crypto firms in Singapore that applied for a license that would allow them to offer digital asset services to local users. Firms were allowed to offer crypto services during the licensing process. However, Binance will stop providing services through its native site Binance.sg until February 13, 2022, and will close all existing accounts.
According to the statement, BAS will refocus its activities as a technology, research and development centre.
“We have always put our users first, so our decision to shut down Binance.sg was not taken lightly,” said Richard Teng, CEO of Binance Singapore. Our immediate priority is to help our users in Singapore migrate their assets to other wallets or other third-party services.” made the statement.
Earlier this month, it was rumored that Binance’s local arm is considering withdrawing its application to operate in the country as its application remains in regulatory uncertainty. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, about 100 of the applicants either withdrew their applications or were rejected, with only four licenses awarded.
All Binance.sg users will be notified via email of the next steps to take when the trading platform is shutting down. Users on the native platform will have to close all open positions and withdraw their Singapore dollar and crypto holdings by February 13.
The development in question came after Binance bought an 18 percent stake in Hg Exchange (HGX), a private stock exchange regulated by Singapore, last week. Since HGX was recently granted a well-known market operator license from MAS, the acquisition was believed to help Binance’s regulatory hurdles. This purchase is still subject to legal requirements.