Cryptocurrency exchange Binance says it is ending support for stock tokens on its main trading platform.
Binance says that by halting stock token purchases immediately, it can shift its focus to “other product offerings.”
“Today, we are announcing that we will be winding down support for stock tokens on Binance.com to shift our commercial focus to other product offerings. Effective immediately, stock tokens are unavailable for purchase on Binance.com.”
Binance introduced the stock tokens in early April, which enable users to access shares of companies listed in traditional stock exchanges.
The global crypto exchange started with electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA) and later added stock tokens of software firms MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Microsoft (MSFT), iPhone-maker Apple (AAPL), and crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN). Binance introduced stock token trading in partnership with investment firm CM-Equity AG.
Binance says users have until October 14th at 19:55 Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) to voluntarily close their positions in stock tokens.
“Users will no longer be able to manually sell or close their positions after 2021-10-14 19:55 (UTC). Thereafter, all stock token positions on Binance.com will be closed at 2021-10-15 13:30 (UTC).”
Users on the exchange who reside in the European Economic Area and Switzerland will be able to migrate their stock tokens to a CM-Equity AG portal that will become operational weeks before the mid-October deadline.
“The portal is scheduled to be open approximately two-to-four weeks before 2021-10-15 (UTC), and additional KYC (know your customer) measures will be requested by CM-Equity AG to complete the transition.”
Binance’s decision to withdraw support for stock tokens coincides with the growing regulatory pressure the exchange has been facing. In June, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority announced that Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to operate in the UK.
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