Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, caused a bit of chaos on Monday after mistakenly announcing on social media that euro transactions were no longer available. Paysafe Payment Solutions, Binance’s banking partner in the area, confirmed that withdrawals and deposits conducted in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) will be available until Sept. 25, the original date it gave after announcing in June it would drop the global exchange as a customer following a “strategic review.”
The bank was mopping up Binance’s mess, and may now feel even more justified in leaving Binance high and dry. Binance, although it retracted its statement, essentially said what it expects will happen when Paysafe pulls the plug: “At the moment, we don’t have a time frame for the restoration of SEPA transfers.” As far as the world knows, Binance does not yet have a replacement for Paysafe.
Binance is having trouble in the U.K., faces an investigation in France and essentially is not welcome in the Netherlands, Germany, and Cyprus. It also faces separate lawsuits from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has a catchphrase for when corporate challenges arise: often sending out just the number “4.” This is to remind people to “Ignore FUD, fake news, attacks, etc.” However, it is sad to see that Binance, which is still perhaps the most important single enterprise in crypto, hasn’t yet figured out how to deal properly with its issues.
We need to know whether CZ is staying or going as chief executive, we need to know if the business will ever have an official home, and we need to know what is actually going on in Europe. Until these questions are answered, Binance is only FUDing itself.