Bloomberg: Mastercard and Visa stop cooperating with Binance

Visa has closed joint products in Europe since July, Mastercard will completely stop cooperating with Binance in September. The payment companies declined to comment on their decisions.

In March, the CFTC filed a civil suit against Binance. The agency believes that the exchange violated the rules of derivatives trading by operating without proper registration. In June, the SEC filed claims against Binance and its head Changpeng Zhao. The regulator filed a total of 13 charges.

Amid regulatory pressure on the exchange in the US, the platform has also run into trouble in Europe. Binance withdrew applications for licenses in the UK, Austria, Cyprus and announced its withdrawal from the Netherlands. Belgium's Financial Services and Markets Authority ordered the exchange to cease operations. Media reported on the authorities' investigation into Binance's branch in France.

After the bailout of Signature Bank in March and the liquidation of Silvergate Bank in the same month, Binance's US unit had difficulties with banking services. The platform held dollar deposits of clients in these institutions.

In May, Binance suspended funding Australian users' accounts in local currency due to the actions of the service provider. As a result of Paysafe's refusal to cooperate with the exchange, the exchange stopped depositing and withdrawing funds in British pounds sterling. Digital payment platform Checkout.com also announced its withdrawal from cooperation with the exchange.

It was decided to close the Binance Connect (Bifinity) service, which had been operating since March 2022. The product allowed merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments via Visa and Mastercard systems. The Binance Card initiative was launched by the exchange as part of a wider rollout of digital assets. It allowed users to pay for goods and services in cryptocurrencies via payment cards.

The day before, Binance announced that it would stop supporting the product in Latin America and the Middle East. This will affect less than 1% of users in the relevant markets. According to Bloomberg, we are talking about Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bahrain.