Leading crypto exchange Binance has announced a new withdrawal limit for users that completed the Basic level of their account verification process, part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) policy. The measure is to take effect immediately for new account registrations for their daily withdrawals.
The limit has gone from 2 Bitcoin (BTC) to 0.06 BTC. Users with a longer time on the platform will see this measure take place in phases. The first phase has been scheduled for August 4th, 2021, at 00:00 AM (UTC), and the final for August 23rd, 2021, at 00:00 AM (UTC). The official announcement states:
We continually review our policies to ensure that we surpass industry standards. This adjustment better accounts for current BTC prices. You can increase your withdrawal limit by completing identity verification.
To complete the Binance Identity Verification process, users must go to their User Center to the Identification section. Therein, they can check their verification level and check their trading and withdrawals limits. The exchange has three levels of identification going from Basic to Intermediate and Advanced.
To complete the process for the Intermediate levels, Binance users need to upload a picture of their ID documents. This can be either a national identification document, passport, or driver’s license. The final stage of this process requires the users to upload a picture of themselves.
Binance Attempts to Reduce Regulatory Pressure?
This measure has been public as the platform faces growing regulatory pressure from agencies and institutions around the globe. The CEO of Binance Changpeng “CZ” Zhao explained that they are taking active steps to increase their efforts and “be more compliant with local regulations everywhere”.
Zhao said that the platform will begin a process to acquire license and authorization from regulators in countries where there is a “legal framework” for crypto exchanges. Key regions of interest are Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Perhaps, one of the most important measures is the reduction of leverage for new accounts. Since July 19th, these users can only trade on Binance Futures with a 20x leverage. The same measure will be applied to accounts open within the past 2 months. Older users can still leverage their positions with up to 125x.
The CEO of Binance also announced that the exchange is “actively hiring leadership with regulatory compliance experience”. This person could replace him as CEO of the platform eventually.
I/we would very much like to hire a strong compliance background CEO to show our commitment to compliance as this is the top priority of the organization.
Zhao clarified that he will not be replaced immediately, but the platform has always had CEO contingency plans. Zhao believes this position should be occupied by one person for around 5 to 10 years to allow “new thinking” to drive the business.
We are always hiring for CEOs. I don’t need to be CEO, and I am not leaving. I will always find ways to contribute to the community behind the logo tattooed to my forearm. I am proud to be a member of the #binance ecosystem. Let’s keep growing it.
At the time of writing, BNB trades at $305 with a 3.2% loss in the daily chart.