Binance directs Dutch users to Coinmerce — a Binance broker
Binance has announced that customers in the Netherlands have until August 17 to withdraw from the exchange and that a new partnership with crypto exchange Coinmerce will make this a “one-click” process.
This withdrawal comes after Binance failed to gain a license from the Netherlands’ central bank. The Dutch Central Bank fined Binance €3.3 million last year for providing these services without registration.
Coinmerce received its license from the bank in November 2020.
Binance has advertised in emails to customers that Coinmerce will serve as its ready-made substitute, offering many of the same assets currently trading on the platform. The exchange also indicated to users that Coinmerce will soon be adding the missing listings, according to users on Reddit and screenshots of emails shared with Protos.
Coinmerce has historically operated as a broker dependent on Binance’s order books, but it claims it has now developed its own exchange and is working on finding other venues to source liquidity. Its new exchange currently only has pairs against Tether.
Read more: Dutch users urged to withdraw crypto from Binance by August 17
Coinmerce has previously sent withdrawals to customers from Binance wallets, claiming this is a byproduct of its operation as a broker.
Binance has relied on a variety of brokers around the world as part of its growth and regulatory strategy, including firms like Swyftx in Australia. Despite this strategy, Binance has been targeted by authorities in a variety of other jurisdictions, including by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the US, and by officials in France and Australia.
Binance has nominally exited the Netherlands by recommending customers transfer to an exchange that only recently became an exchange and which previously served as a broker for Binance.
Protos has reached out to Coinmerce to determine if its new exchange is based on licensed Binance technology and whether or not it intends to continue to act as a broker for Binance. We will update if we hear back.
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