Silvergate Bank to Discontinue Binance USD Deposits, Withdrawals

Silvergate Bank, one of the few financial institutions serving cryptocurrency firms, will stop processing U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals for exchange giant Binance, people familiar with the situation confirmed.

• According to an email from Binance being circulated Thursday on Twitter and Reddit, starting Friday any USD deposits and withdrawals through La Jolla, Calif.-based Silvergate Bank will be discontinued.
• The email, whose authenticity CoinDesk’s sources confirmed, goes on to say, “Rest assured, we are working hard to provide an alternative USD solution.” In the meantime, users have other options.
• Binance declined to comment on the post. “We don’t have anything to add at this time,” said a spokesperson, who did not respond to a followup email. 
• Silvergate and Binance.US, the global exchange’s stateside affiliate, were unavailable for comment at press time. Another source said the U.S. division was unaffected.
• Indeed, the bank went so far as to tweet late Thursday afternoon that Binance.US "is a customer in good standing and an active participant on the Silvergate Exchange Network," without mentioning the mothership.
• The Silvergate funding option was introduced for Binance users in December. As of late afternoon New York time Thursday, the FAQ page for the service was still up.
• It is unclear what prompted Silvergate to end the service. Bloomberg recently reported that Binance was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). No wrongdoing has been alleged in any of these reported investigations.

Read more: Binance’s Chief Finance Exec Has Abruptly Left the Company

Omkar Godbole contributed reporting.

UPDATE (22:41 UTC): Added sentence about Silvergate confirming Binance.US remains in good standing.