Less Bitcoin exchanges support US traders
Recently leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.com barred U.S. investors for trading on its site.
Binance.com joins several other sites in not extending their exchange services to the U.S. market. The intriguing thing about Biance.com’s announcement is that it comes just days after announcing it would be opening its doors to America.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, in a statement on June the 13th said, “we are excited to finally launch Binance US and bring the security, speed, and liquidity of Binance.com to North America.
“Binance US will be led by our local partner BAM and will serve the U.S. market in full regulatory compliance.”
According to documentation licensing would have allowed residents of California to trade with Binance via Bam.
Yet while the ink was drying on the page, Binanace announced less than 24 hours later that it was cracking down on ‘wayward users’ via a series of know your customer (KYC) checks and that it could no longer provide services to the U.S.; “Binance is unable to provide services to any U.S. person.”
This was part of an announcement to changes to its terms of service and has left many U.S. traders in a kind of cryptocurrency no-man’s-land. Binanace joins Bitmex and Bitfinex in closing their doors to the American Bitcoin trader. Many now visit this website to find U.S. friendly trading platforms.
The ban on Americans
One of the reasons for the ban on American citizens using various trading platforms is that every so often an American politician calls for it to be banned. One of the most recent was Congressman Brad Sherman who cited Hamas’ mining of the cryptocurrency to get around U.S. sanctions levelled at Iran.
He went on to say that cryptocurrency undermines the U.S. dollar which currently is the bedrock of world currency, and was predominantly used by and for criminal activity. Facebook also came under fire from the congressman following its announcement that it was releasing its own form of cryptocurrency. All of these announcements surface from time to time, and they seem to make trading platforms jumpy.
Other reasons could be that Americans pay tax wherever they live in the world. This is a departure from the rest of the world where citizens pay tax by residency. According to some Bitcoin news sites, this is seeing investors renouncing their U.S. citizenship in favour of a more crypto friendly one.
No doubt the fact that the biggest and most productive exchanges in the world banning U.S. citizens is a driving factor as well.
Bitcoin is a force to be reckoned with both as a currency and a commodity. It may be volatile, but it has at times been profitable.
Perhaps the most significant threat from a political perspective is that it is to a certain degree outside the world banking system and the control of governments. This must keep certain congressmen and women up at night worrying about what is to come.
Despite the ban, there are exchanges that will take U.S. citizens at least for now. To learn more about Bitcoin and Bitcoin exchange, visit Bitcoin.org as they have fantastic resources on their site.