Binance cuts withdrawal limits, rolls out tax reporting tool

Published at: July 28, 2021

Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes, continues its efforts to maintain dialogue with global regulators by introducing withdrawal limits and a new tax reporting system.

The company officially announced Tuesday a major update to its Know Your Customer policies, significantly reducing maximum withdrawal amounts for users who have not completed full identity verification.

Effective immediately for new Binance accounts, users who have completed only basic account verifications will be unable to withdraw more than 0.06 Bitcoin (BTC) per day, worth roughly $2,400 at the time of writing. Previously, the maximum daily withdrawal amount was capped at 2 BTC, or about $80,000, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao noted on Twitter.

According to the announcement, Binance will continue applying new withdrawal limits for existing users in phases starting from Aug. 4. The exchange expects to have adopted new withdrawal restrictions entirely by Aug. 23. Binance users who have completed full identity verification will be still able to withdraw up to 100 BTC in a day, or nearly $4 million at BTC prices at the time of writing. “Withdrawal limits refresh daily at 00:00 AM,” the announcement notes.

Binance also rolled out its new tax reporting tool on Wednesday. The reporting system is an Application Programming Interface that enables Binance users to track their crypto transactions, transfer their transaction history to third-party vendors, and obtain instant overviews of their local tax liabilities. The new initiative is part of the exchange’s broader strategy to expand user protection and risk management protocols.

According to Binance’s tax reporting instruction page, users can now select a third-party tax tool to transfer their transaction history. “Binance is not endorsing any particular third-party tax tool software. Please exercise your own discretion and/or consult your personal tax adviser based on your personal tax circumstances and requirements when selecting the third-party tax tools,” the exchange warned.

Binance did not immediately respond to a request for information on the usage of the new tool for Binance US users.

The news comes amid Binance aggressively adopting new trading restrictions in an apparent effort to respond to the ongoing global regulatory crackdown on the exchange. This week, the exchange delisted margin trading pairs for three fiat currencies, including the euro, the Australian dollar and the British pound sterling. Binance’s futures trading platform has also started reducing maximum leverage positions from 125x to 20x.

Zhao also hinted Tuesday that he might be willing to step down as CEO should someone “with a strong regulatory background” be available. “There are no immediate plans to replace me as CEO,” he noted.