Binance has announced changes to its product offering due to the new MiCA stablecoin rules, which will take effect on June 30, 2024 in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Only certain regulated companies will be able to issue and offer stablecoins to the public, these stablecoins will be “Regulated Stablecoins”.
Many existing stablecoins may not fall into this category and will therefore be subject to certain restrictions. These will be categorized as “Unauthorized Stablecoins”.
Binance will make gradual changes to the availability of Unauthorized Stablecoins. These transitional measures aim to allow EEA users to switch to regulated Stablecoins while avoiding any market disruption and complying with the MiCA stablecoin rules.
Binance will limit the availability of Unauthorized Stablecoins to EEA users in all of its product offerings, starting June 30, 2024 (UTC+3).
- Binance Convert: Conversion functions for unauthorized Stablecoins will be kept in “sell only” mode. This means in practice that EEA users will be able to sell Unauthorized Stablecoins for: other digital assets (such as bitcoin or ether), regulated Stablecoins or fiat currencies (depending on the availability of fiat channels in one’s jurisdiction). This will allow users to easily switch to Regulated Stablecoins. Buying unauthorized Stablecoins with Convert will not be possible from 2024-06-30 (UTC+3).
- Spot Trading: Trading spot pairs with unauthorized Stablecoins will remain available until further notice. During the interim period, trading pairs of digital assets with Unauthorized Stablecoins will coexist with trading pairs with Regulated Stablecoins.
- Wallet: Custodial and wallet services of Unauthorized Stablecoins will continue. Users will be able to withdraw or deposit stablecoins from or to their Binance wallet.
In addition to the aforementioned products on Binance Convert, Spot Trading and Wallet, Binance will implement product restrictions across its entire product offering. These restrictions will prevent users from entering new product or service offerings involving unauthorized Stablecoins. Please note that product-specific impacts beyond this general product restriction will apply until 2024-06-30 (UTC+3), unless otherwise specified.
Rewards across the platform, for example from the Reward Center, Campaigns and Referrals will be changed to Regulated Stablecoins, BNB or other non-stablecoin tokens.
If users have an existing token with Unauthorized Stablecoins, they can claim it until its expiration date.
Spot Copy Trading will stop for EEA users from 2024-06-29 23:59 (UTC+3).
Impacted Lead Traders and Copy Traders are encouraged to close their positions in Copy Trading activities and transfer their funds back to their respective Spot Wallets before 2024-06-29 23:59 (UTC+3).
After 2024-06-29 23:59 (UTC+3), all open positions in Spot Copy Trading will be closed at the purchase price – any remaining assets in a Copy Trader’s Spot Trader trading sub-account will be returned to the corresponding Spot Copy Trader Wallet until 2024-06-30 23:59 (UTC+3), subject to the first deduction of any unsettled Shared Profit amounts, which will be paid to the respective master merchants.
New lending of unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked.
The transfer of Unauthorized Stablecoins as Margin collateral to users’ Margin Wallets will be prohibited. Depending on the specific Margin product, it may be necessary for users to use alternative margin collateral and/or reduce their positions to prevent liquidation.
Existing margin loans will remain unaffected and will not be subject to forced liquidation until further notice. Affected margin traders are encouraged to close margin loans involving unauthorized Stablecoins.
Existing stores of unauthorized Stablecoins held in the Margin Wallet may continue to be used for transactions until further notice.
The FDUSD group will no longer be available for EEA users.
New subscriptions, including Auto-Subscribe, involving unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked on Simple Earn Flexible and Locked Products (eg this also applies to products such as locked GNS products with DAI rewards) before 06-29- 2024 (UTC+3).
All existing Simple Earn subscriptions that include Unauthorized Stablecoins remain unaffected and will not be subject to forced redemption until further notice.
- Binance Loans & VIP Loans
The new loan subscription and new additional collateral involving Unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked before 2024-06-29 (UTC+3).
Existing fixed-term loans involving Unauthorized Stablecoins will be held until maturity and will not be subject to forced repayment.
Existing collateral and loans of unauthorized Stablecoins will remain open until repaid.
Top-up of Unauthorized Stablecoins to improve Loan-to-Value when using an Unauthorized Stablecoin as collateral will remain unaffected until further notice in order to avoid forced liquidation.
New Auto-Invest subscriptions with Unauthorized Stablecoins will be banned.
Existing plans involving the sale of Unauthorized Stablecoins may continue until the Unauthorized Stablecoins held in the Earn Wallet are exhausted.
Existing plans to purchase Unlicensed Stablecoins will no longer be available to EEA users.
New Dual Investment product subscriptions with unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked before 2024-06-29 (UTC+3).
Existing Dual Invest product subscriptions with Unauthorized Stablecoins will be held until they expire and will be normally settled accordingly.
New subscriptions involving unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked before 2024-06-29 (UTC+3).
Unauthorized Stablecoins will not be allowed as a payment method.
EEA users will not be able to send or receive unauthorized Stablecoins.
EEA users will also no longer be able to use Binance Pay with unauthorized Stablecoins.
All unauthorized Stablecoins payments to EEA recipients will be blocked.
Any refunds to EEA users may be processed in EUR.
Transactions involving unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked.
EEA users will not be able to generate or receive Red Packets in unauthorized Stablecoins.
Red packs in unauthorized Stablecoins received before 2024-06-29 23:59 (UTC+3) will still be redeemable.
A refund is allowed for an expired red pack received before 06/29/2024 23:59 (UTC+3).
NFT purchases involving unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked.
Existing USDT rewards earned before 2024-06-29 can still be distributed to EEA users after 2024-06-29 (UTC+3).
Gift Cards will only be available in regulated Stablecoins or other digital assets for EEA users for purchases or redemptions.
Gift cards minted in Unauthorized Stablecoins before 2024-06-29 (UTC+3) can be returned to the wallet in the original stablecoin currency, redeemed in Regulated Stablecoins or other eligible digital assets.
- Web3 Wallet – Earnings Section
New lending protocols involving Unauthorized Stablecoins will be blocked in the Simple Yield zone before 2024-06-29 (UTC+3).
All existing active positions below the Simple Yield zone remain unaffected until further notice.
Buying Unauthorized Stablecoins via P2P will be restricted, selling Unauthorized Stablecoins via P2P remains available.
Purchases of unauthorized Stablecoins through Binance OTC will be blocked.
OTC Block Trading involving unauthorized Stablecoins will remain available in sell-only mode, as will Binance Convert.