Binance Australia Voluntarily Cancels License Amid ASIC Targeted Review

April 06, 2023 - The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that Binance Australia Derivatives has cancelled its financial services license held by Oztures Trading Pty Ltd, trading as (trading as Binance Australia Derivatives) in response to a request to cancel received from Binance the day before. 

As a result of the cancellation:

• with effect from 14 April 2023, clients will not be able to increase derivatives positions or open new positions with Binance;
• Binance will require clients to close any existing derivative positions before 21 April 2023;
• on 21 April 2023, Binance will close any remaining open positions. 

The terms of the cancellation include a provision that that the cancellation has no effect on the requirement for Binance to continue as a member of Australian Financial Complaints Authority until the end of 8 April 2024.

ASIC has been conducting a targeted review of Binance financial services business in Australia, including its classification of retail and wholesale clients. On 29 March 2023, ASIC issued a notice of hearing under s915C of the Corporations Act 2001 to consider whether ASIC should cancel or suspend the AFS licence held by Oztures Trading Pty Ltd.

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, “It is critically important that AFS licensees classify retail and wholesale clients in accordance with the law. Retail clients trading in crypto derivatives are afforded important rights and consumer protections under financial services laws in Australia, including access to external dispute resolution through the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

“Our targeted review of these matters is ongoing, including focus on the extent of consumer harms,” said Mr Longo.

As of April 05, the Binance Australia platform had just 104 users, as stated by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in a tweet:

There are some misinformation (and confusion) about #Binance Australia.@Binance_AUS requested to cancel the derivatives license yesterday. The platform had exactly 104 users as of yesterday.@Binance_AUS will CONTINUE to operate the spot exchange in AU. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/nEExtG4U90

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) April 6, 2023

“As we have said before, ASIC supports a regulatory framework for crypto with a focus on consumer protection and market integrity. The final decision as to the regulatory settings is one for Government,” said Mr Longo.

Meanwhile, in the US, the CFTC is suing Binance and its Founder Changpeng Zhao ("CZ") for mis-selling of unregistered derivatives products in the US.