Binance relaunches margin trading in South Africa
Binance has relaunched its futures products in South Africa through a partnership with Fivewest OTC Desk.
“Binance USD-Margined and Coin-Margined Futures will be available to South African clients, and Binance will provide all operations and services,” the blockchain infrastructure provider and cryptocurrency exchange stated.
Binance operates the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, according to rankings on Coinmarketcap and CoinGecko.
It also has the largest derivates exchange by volume and open interests.
“The relaunch of these products included a significant period of compliance and governance related processes and activities and is available to South African customers under Fivewest’s license (FSP 51619),” Binance said.
Binance blocked South Africans from using its margin, options, futures, and leveraged tokens trading services on 8 October 2021.
This came after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) issued a strangely-worded public warning against trading on Binance.
The FSCA later confirmed that Binance had halted its derivates trading functionality for South Africans on its recommendations.
The regulator said it warned against Binance for suspected contraventions of financial sector laws, specifically the Financial Markets Act and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act.
Binance was not the only large international exchange the FSCA targeted. It also took aim at FTX and ByBit — both large exchanges by trading volume.
FTX, with the help of South African cryptocurrency exchange Ovex, managed to continue offering margin trading under an Ovex Financial Service Provider licence.
“We are pleased to be relaunching crypto futures in partnership with Fivewest as it delivers on our core focus on ensuring local industry compliance while enabling greater access to digital assets for South Africans,” said Binance South Africa director Hannes Wessels.
Binance CEO and co-founder Changpeng Zhao said South Africa is a very important market to the company.
“We remain focused on building user trust through regulatory compliance, security, and strategic partnerships,” Zhao said.
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