Binance to Close Down Derivatives Services for South African Users

Binance users based in South Africa will have until January 6th next year to manually close their derivatives positions as the exchange is halting these services. This is the latest action by the world’s leading crypto trading platform in its efforts to comply with local regulators.

• As announced earlier on October 8th, Binance has alerted its South African customers that it will cease offering any derivatives services. More precisely, those are trading of futures, options, margin, and leveraged tokens.
• Effective immediately, users based in the African nation will not be eligible to open new accounts for those products.
• Existing clients will have 90 days to “reduce and close their positions” manually. They will still be able to top-up margin balances to prevent margin calls and liquidations. However, they won’t have the option to increase or open new positions.
• Should users fail to close their positions by January 6th, 2022, at 11:59 PM (UTC), they will be automatically settled.
• Once again, Binance attributed this decision to its efforts to comply with local regulators. As previously reported, the exchange has faced enhanced scrutiny from watchdogs and had to close derivatives services in other countries as well.
• It has also undertaken numerous different actions trying to increase its regulatory compliance team, including the hiring of new personnel in its AML/KYC departments.