Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Friday that it will discontinue its Visa (NYSE:V) debit card services across the European Economic Area (EEA) from December 20, 2023. This move is expected to impact approximately 1% of Binance's global user base, including users in about 40 European countries such as Austria, The Netherlands, Cyprus, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland.
The Visa debit cards, issued by Contis Financial Services under Solaris Group, allowed crypto conversion into local currencies for transactions across EEA's 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Since their launch in September 2020, there were plans to extend these services to Russia and the US.
The discontinuation also affects the Ukrainian Refugee Crypto Cards program for verified refugees. Despite this change, the company assures that European users' main accounts will remain unaffected. Transactions can continue via the Binance Pay app, albeit with less acceptance than the Visa cards that had support from 60 million global merchants. Users are allowed to order replacement cards until December 6 and cashback rewards will continue.
This decision follows a series of challenges faced by Binance. The company experienced a suspension of euro transactions after Paysafe's withdrawal and ongoing restrictions on new UK user registrations due to the loss of a third-party service provider. In addition, Binance.US suspended US dollar deposits in June with warnings about potential withdrawal suspensions.
Nevertheless, recent developments have provided some relief to US users. A partnership with MoonPay now enables them to purchase Tether (USDT) on the platform and a workaround for dollar withdrawals via stablecoin conversion has been provided.
However, regulatory scrutiny has led to Mastercard (NYSE:MA) ending its partnership with Binance in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Bahrain in September 2023. The company has also limited card services in Latin America and the Middle East.
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