Binance Asia Will End Service in Singapore

The exchange giant announced it will cease efforts to obtain its own license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, following an investment in a regulated exchange, and plans to shut down its Binance.sg service in February, 2022

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Binance.sg will shut down on Feb. 13, as Binance Asia will refocus activities in the city-state on its recent investment in regulated exchange HGX
  • Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, says the Binance Asia application for payment services licensing in Singapore was made “somewhat redundant”

The world’s largest digital asset exchange by volume, Binance, has been making moves to increase regulatory compliance for much of the past year. In June, Binance added a Singaporean subsidiary, Binance Pte, as it awaited licensing review from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Blockworks previously reported. The company now is shifting its focus to a MAS-regulated exchange in which Binance took an 18% stake last week.

According to an announcement posted to Binance.sg, the Singapore brand is slated to wind down early next year:

“Binance Asia Services Pte Ltd (BAS) intends to withdraw its licensing efforts in Singapore and wind down its digital payment token (“DPT”) services in Singapore by 13 February 2022.  The decision has not been made lightly, and we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.”

The announcement further states that Binance.sg has halted user registrations, KYC processes, and both crypto and fiat deposits. Trading will continue only through Jan. 12, 2022, after which users will have one month to withdraw their assets before all accounts will be closed.

Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, took to Twitter Monday morning to clarify that the license application withdrawal was due Binance’s investment in Singaporean exchange, HGX.

“This investment made our own application somewhat redundant. We will continue to work through our partners to grow the crypto industry in Singapore,” he wrote.

Richard Teng, who was appointed CEO of BAS in June, was previously the chairman at HGX and spent 13 years at the Monetary Authority of Singapore before that.

“In Singapore, we continue to work closely with key government agencies to support the growth of the blockchain ecosystem and development of requisite local talent needed,” Mr Teng told The Straits Times.

A Binance Asia spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Binance Coin (BNB) is trading about 3.4% lower since the announcement.


Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter now.


Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

Bitcoin is still rising, 11 years after the documentary film The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

article-image

Arch Labs CEO told Blockworks that the team plans to launch a native token, but declined to give details

article-image

CEO Mike Silagadze tells Blockworks that the US is “open for business” and why its DeFi bank offering is the first of many

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best

article-image

Why an analyst is kicking off COIN coverage with “buy” rating