Mastercard and Visa are pulling back from issuing crypto-payment cards for Binance amid the exchange’s regulatory problems, Bloomberg reports.
Visa has halted the rollout of joint products in Europe since July, a spokesperson for the crypto-trading platform told the agency. Mastercard will fully terminate its cooperation with Binance in September.
The payment companies declined to comment on their decisions.
In March, the CFTC filed a civil lawsuit against Binance. In the regulator’s view, the exchange violated derivatives trading rules by operating without the necessary registration.
In June, the SEC brought charges against Binance and its chief Changpeng Zhao. The regulator brought a total of 13 counts.
Against the backdrop of regulatory pressure on the exchange in the United States, the platform faced problems in Europe. Binance withdrew license applications in the United Kingdom, in Austria, in Cyprus and announced its withdrawal from the Netherlands. The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority ordered the exchange to cease operations. Media reported on an investigation by authorities into Binance’s France subsidiary.
After a bailout in March of Signature Bank and the liquidation in the same month of Silvergate Bank, Binance’s U.S. unit faced difficulties with banking services. The platform held customers’ dollar deposits in these institutions.
In May Binance paused top-ups to Australian users’ accounts in local currency due to actions by the service provider. The exchange also stopped deposits and withdrawals in British pounds sterling after Paysafe ended its cooperation.
The firm said it would cease servicing Binance entirely from September. The digital payments platform Checkout.com also announced its withdrawal from the partnership with the exchange.
The latter decided to shut Binance Connect (Bifinity), which had been operating since March 2022. The product allowed merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments via Visa and Mastercard networks.
The Binance Card initiative was launched by the exchange as part of a broader push to widen the use of digital assets. It allowed users to pay for goods and services in cryptocurrencies via payment cards.
Earlier, the exchange said it would discontinue support for the product in Latin America and the Middle East. According to the statement, this will affect less than 1% of users on those markets.
Bloomberg reports that this concerns Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Bahrain. The move is tied to Mastercard’s decision. The payments company clarified that it does not affect other programs with crypto-industry participants.
In March, the bitcoin exchange Bybit launched a debit card in collaboration with Mastercard.