Binance, one of the world's largest crypto trading platforms, has announced that it will cease operations in the Netherlands following its failure to obtain a license from the Dutch authorities. This comes after Binance spent the last six months trying to get approval from Dutch regulators to continue operations in the country. However, the Dutch Financial Markets Authority (AFM) refused to grant the license, citing concerns about compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) rules.
Following the decision, Binance announced that it will stop accepting new customer registrations from the Netherlands starting June 16, 2023. Existing users will also not be able to make new deposits in euros or other fiat currencies, and cryptocurrency trading will also turned off. However, Binance mentioned that users will be able to withdraw their funds and cryptocurrencies from the platform.
Binance's decision to withdraw from the Netherlands comes as Dutch authorities have taken an increasingly strict approach to regulating the crypto market. In a recent case, exchange platform Bitonic sued the AFM over a similar decision. In that case, the AFM insisted that Bitonic perform additional identity checks for users trading Bitcoin, treating Bitcoin as a currency, and not a commodity.
Binance said it will continue its operations in other parts of the world and will try to comply with all relevant regulations.
