Binance.US, the U.S.-based subsidiary of crypto exchange Binance, has introduced a new U.S. dollar on-ramp as it transitions to being a crypto-only exchange.
In a Tuesday announcement, Binance.US said it had partnered with crypto payments firm MoonPay to facilitate a way for customers to fund their USDT balance using U.S. dollars, and then purchase crypto using USDT.
Today, we're excited to introduce a new $USD on-ramp!
✔️ Buy $USDT on https://t.co/AZwoBOgsqS through payment partners like @moonpay, which supports debit & credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
✔️ Sell USDT for USD to withdraw via bank transfer.
Learn more & get started ⤵️
— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) August 22, 2023
The service will allow users to buy USDT using their debit or credit cards, as well as payment services like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Users will also be allowed to sell USDT for U.S. dollars and then withdraw these dollars through a bank transfer.
The partnership comes after Binance.US encountered issues with U.S. dollar withdrawal requests earlier this year as a result of issues with its banking partners. At the time, the exchange said it expected its partners to discontinue that service in the near future and encouraged users to convert their U.S. dollar balance to stablecoins.
“While Binance.US is a crypto-only exchange, USDT has replaced USD as our base asset,” read an accompanying blog post to the exchange’s Tuesday announcement.
Not everyone was pleased with the news, however, with some users voicing their frustrations with the high levels of fees incurred when using MoonPay for transactions. The payment firm supports minimum sell orders of $30 in value and charges a 2.25% fee for bank transfer transactions when selling, or 3.49% of transaction value for purchases.
Meanwhile, Binance’s troubles with regulators continue to take center stage, with the exchange’s native token BNB falling to a one-year low on Tuesday after a Wall Street Journal report about the exchange facilitating Russian users to move money despite sanctions.
Sheesh.
$428 million/month of P2P Ruble-to-crypto.
$8 BILLION/month of Ruble-to-crypto trading on the main exchange.
If you think the US govt isn’t going to drop the hammer hard on that kind of scale of sanctions violations, you’ve lost your mind. pic.twitter.com/gpQS9qtVZe
— Travis Kling (@Travis_Kling) August 22, 2023