Binance Stops Crypto Derivatives Trading in Spain – Report
Citing an unnamed source, El Confidencial reports that the country’s Commission Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) has asked Binance to stop offering crypto derivatives products to Spanish investors “until it adapts to current regulations.” The report adds.
The Malta-based exchange would have a month to comply with the request.
This is not the first time Binance has been asked to change its operations in a specific country due to regulatory concerns. In 2019, the derivatives exchange Binance Futures was forced to close its doors in the United Kingdom after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) informed the company that it was not authorized to provide services in the country.
Per La Información, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), which has authority over the crypto sector in Spain, has recently “forced” Binance to “completely abandon the sale of cryptoasset derivatives in Spain.” The report quoted unnamed “sources from the business sector” as stating that Binance’s Spanish “managers” had “held several meetings with the [CMNV] since the beginning of the year.”
The derivatives menu has been removed from the relevant selection on the homepage of Binance’s Spanish website. In the English-language version, the derivatives menu is found between the trade and earn menus.
The same media outlet previously reported that Binance held talks with the regulator in early March this year and that Binance had handed “credential letters” to the regulator, again quoting “sources” close to the matter. In January, the firm made a bid to be included in the official registry of the central Bank of Spain (BdE).
The report stated that the “cryptocurrency giant” was “clear about its expansion strategy in Spain,” but was “awaiting approval from the BdE” before it began expanding its operations in the country.
This is not the first time the CNMV and Binance have crossed swords. In November last year, following an apparent promotional deal between Binance and the Spanish footballing legend Andrés Iniesta, the latter posted pictures to Twitter of himself using the crypto trading platform.
The unimpressed CNMV publicly admonished him on the social media platform, writing that cryptoassets, “as unregulated products,” entailed certain “risks.” The regulator ordered the World Cup-winning star to “inform yourself thoroughly before investing in” crypto “or recommending others to do so.”
Last year, the regulator placed Binance on a regulatory “grey list” of firms – mainly crypto-related companies that it considers to be carrying out “unregulated” and “unsupervised” activities. Binance, along with a couple of other big-name crypto trading firms, was able to “leave” the list. But its struggle for formal recognition in Spain – it appears – is very much ongoing.
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