Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange is moving closer to completely cutting ties with its European payment partner Paysafe. Currently, a small portion of Binance users in the European Union (EU) have been blocked from fiat withdrawals and are unable to withdraw Euros from the platform.
Binance EU Users Denied Withdrawal Access Beforehand
Despite Paysafe’s support services being set to end on September 25, 2023, the payment giant has denied some Binance users access to their funds ahead of the deadline.
The payment giant has denied withdrawal access for certain users until their accounts are properly reviewed. Presently, about 0.085% of Binance EU users have been blocked from withdrawing their Euros.
According to a Binance user Ervin Ursic Kovac who spoke to CoinDesk, he had sent some ETH to his account on September 12, 2023, and sold it for Euros. However, he could not withdraw the currency as he was notified with a pop-up message from Paysafe that his account had been closed early with no prior warning.
The Binance user was surprised as he had been able to withdraw Euro easily the previous day.
The pop-up message read:
As a high-frequency Paysafe service user, Paysafe closed your account early to speed up this process. Any remaining EUR/GBP in your account can be withdrawn once the review is completed.
Binance was displeased with Paysafe’s move to momentarily block certain users from accessing their funds on such short notice. Subsequently, the exchange urged its users to be patient as they are actively working to speed up the returns of funds from Paysafe to all affected users, and will notify its users on the the exchange’s app once they confirm review completion from Paysafe.
European Payment Giant Paysafe To End Support In Less Than A Week
European payment giant Paysafe, previously announced that it will end its support for Binance’s customers and terminate its partnership with the exchange on September 25, 2023, less than a week from now.
Paysafe’s decision to end its support and terminate its partnership with the crypto exchange came in May 2023, after the payment giant discontinued its support for new UK customers of Binance due to a complex and regulatory environment.
The following month, the payment giant told the exchange that it would no longer render its services to Binance EU customers in the wake of a strategic review of its partnership with the crypto exchange.
Due to this, the crypto exchange announced on X that Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) transfers were suspended and were uncertain when SEPA transfers would be reinstated, that its current payment provider could no longer support them. However, this post was later deleted by the crypto exchange.
Paysafe’s termination of its relationship with the crypto exchange came amidst several lawsuits filed against Binance, Binance.US, and Binance owner Changpeng CZ Zhao in May 2023.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) went after the exchange for allegedly operating an unregistered business and misleading investors. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also piled on with its own lawsuit for what it called a “willful evasion” of US law.
So far, Binance has been forced to retract from various European countries amidst its preparation to comply with the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) rules that will come into place in 2024.