Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, said in a statement on Friday that it has stopped stock token purchases made through Binance .com as of today.
- Binance added digital assets obtained through the tokenization of company shares to the stock market in April.
- According to the stock market’s announcement today, users will no longer be able to buy share tokens, and those who have already bought stock tokens will be able to sell them within the next 90 days or continue to hold them for this period. Transactions will close on 14 October.
- Binance had added the share tokens of companies such as Tesla, then Coinbase, MicroStrategy, Microsoft, and Apple to the platform.
- Germany’s regulator, BaFin, issued an announcement a few weeks after Binance listed these tokens, declaring that these assets are “suspicious.” The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom was also examining whether Binance complied with securities laws when listing share tokens.
- Consob, Italy’s regulator, said this week that although the “derivative” and “share token” splits on Binance site are available in Italian, the exchange is not licensed to operate in the Italian market.
- Hong Kong’s regulator issued a statement on Friday, stating that stock tokens can be considered securities, urging investors to be cautious when trading on platforms like Binance.
