The crypto giant exchange, Binance has announced that it will suspend its Visa debit card services in the European Economic Area (EEA) starting December 20.
This news comes as the latest development in a series of challenges and changes that the exchange platform has faced. Several users have begun to publish the statement that Binance sent to Users warning about the suspension of their partnership with Visa.
And here goes the #Binance Visa Debit Card!
First Paysafe providing EUR on/offboarding, now Contis providing the debit card, what's next? pic.twitter.com/e7EF7G7CVN
— Michael ⚡️S⚡️ (@M_affirmed) October 20, 2023
Binance’s Visa debit card, which allowed users to convert their cryptocurrencies into local currencies to make in-store and online purchases in the EEA, had been introduced in September 2020 with plans to expand into Russia and possibly the United States.
However, according to a company spokesperson, approximately only 1% of users will be impacted by this measure. Although this figure seems low, it is worth questioning whether it really reflects the magnitude of the impact, given that this decision will affect the financial freedom of thousands of people in the affected countries.
The card issuer, “Contis”, a Lithuanian electronic money institution owned by the German banking platform Solaris Group, will stop issuing the card.
This news comes shortly after the exchange restored euro deposits and withdrawals on its platform, after a month of unavailability due to the suspension of payment processing services by Paysafe.
A Sum of Issues Behind Binance Moves
This measure also follows other problems that the firm has faced in different markets. In June, the company suspended US dollar deposits and warned that withdrawals would also be suspended.
To mitigate this, the platform partnered with MoonPay to allow US users to purchase Tether (USDT) on the exchange and recently announced that US customers will be able to withdraw dollars by converting them into stablecoins.
Additionally, Mastercard ended its partnership association with Binance in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bahrain in September. Although no specific reasons were provided, it was suggested that increased regulatory scrutiny could have motivated the breakup.
