United States crypto exchange Binance US has finally rolled out its Binance Pay service — some 22 months after the feature was launched by the global exchange to its customers outside the U.S. in 2021.
The service, which had a beta version rolled out globally in Feb. 2021 for peer-to-peer payments which was expanded to include merchant transactions on Mar. 12, allows mobile users of the Binance app to instantly transact nearly 150 supported cryptocurrencies without fees.
A Dec.13 blog post from Binance US clarifies that Pay transactions will feature zero gas or transaction fees, and notes that the app is currently only available on mobile as it prepares to introduce a web version “which will arrive in the near future.”
Meanwhile, amid the recent FUD against Binance global, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) applauded the Binance American unit, saying to “Keep building!”
Keep building!
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) December 13, 2022
To access the new features, Binance.US users would need to update to the latest version of the app, and go through identity verification as well as loading their Pay wallet.
However, the service only facilitates transactions between users on the Binance US mobile app. Users can receive up to $1 million in crypto every 24 hours.
Related: Crypto community members discuss bank run on Binance
The latest announcement has come amid a turbulent period for the global crypto exchange.
At the time of writing Binance’s Bitcoin (BTC) balance has fallen by over 42,000 in the last 24 hours, equating to over $754 million, but despite the withdrawals the exchange still has a Bitcoin balance in excess of 527,304 BTC according to on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass.
The withdrawals are understood to have followed a Dec. 13 Reuters report which suggested the United States Department of Justice is nearing the end of an investigation into Binance which commenced in 2018, with U.S. prosecutors reportedly split over whether there is enough evidence to press criminal charges against the exchange and its executives.
Additionally, there have also been fresh concerns within the crypto community relating to Binance’s finances, with accounting and financial specialists consulted by the Wall Street Journal in a Dec. 10 report suggesting Binance’s proof of reserves raise a number of red flags while community members fear the worst.
In a Dec. 14 update on Twitter, CZ noted that “Things seem to have stabilized,” adding that the withdrawals yesterday weren’t even within the top five withdrawals they’ve processed in its history.
Things seem to have stabilized. Yesterday was not the highest withdrawals we processed, not even top 5. We processed more during LUNA or FTX crashes. Now deposits are coming back in. ♂️ https://t.co/WLK2KyCym0
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) December 14, 2022