Binance enforces mandatory KYC on all users amid mounting regulatory pressure

Binance has said it's now requiring all users to complete Intermediate Verification amid mounting compliance pressure from worldwide regulators.

The world's largest exchange said in an announcement on Friday that effective immediately, all new users now must complete Intermediate Verification to access Binance's services, including cryptocurrency deposits, trades and withdrawals.

Binance said the move comes as it reviews its products and services on an ongoing basis to "determine changes and improvements in light of evolving global compliance standards."

Per Binance's Identity Verification process, an Intermediate Verification includes the submissions of government-issued ID as well as facial verification.

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For existing users who have not completed the Intermediate Verification, their account access will be limited to "withdrawal only," which means they can only withdraw assets, cancel orders or close positions.

"This will be carried out in phases to minimize user-experience disruption, from now through 2021-10-19 00:00 AM (UTC)," the firm said. Existing users can only resume full access to Binance products and services like deposits and trading after completing at least the Intermediate Verification.

The latest change also comes weeks after Binance further reduced the daily withdrawal limit for non-verified accounts from a maximum of 2 BTC to 0.06 BTC.

The exchange has come under a series of regulatory scrutiny by global regulators in multiple jurisdictions including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and several European Union countries.

It's reported on Thursday that Binance.US, the exhcange's partner in the U.S., is trying to raise as much as $100 million but investors remain wary due to regulatory concerns.

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Wolfie joined The Block’s news team in 2020 and switched to the research side in 2021 to focus on crypto mining analysis. Prior to The Block, he had been a journalist at CoinDesk for three years. Wolfie has a background in financial journalism.