BCR Podcast #12: Understanding Binance's Payment Troubles with Saori Honorato

Note: after this podcast was recorded, Binance announced Friday June 24 that BRL deposits and withdrawals would “soon resume” via a new partnership with payment firm Latam Gateway

You can also listen to this podcast on Spotify

Hello everyone,

Binance’s suspension of real deposits and withdrawals last week and the abrupt termination of Capitual, its local payment processor and fiat on/offramp, created a major stir in the Brazil crypto market.

A week after reports of the situation began to surface, Binance customers in Brazil are still unable to deposit or withdraw using Pix or Ted - the two easiest and most popular payment methods. Binance has provided users with some alternative options.

For context, Binance is by far the largest exchange by volume operating in the Brazilian market, though its “fast and loose” modus operandi has left many local players grumbling about its success.

The circumstances around these events are rather complex and mysterious, and there is a lot of FUD circulating as users complain on social media and competing exchanges use this situation to pry users away from Binance.

I invited Portal do Bitcoin reporter Saori Honorato to join the podcast to help us better understand the timeline of events, what we know and what we don’t know. Saori has been following this situation closely, so I appreciate her taking the time to help us make sense of it all.

Important disclosure here that while Portal do Bitcoin is owned by the 2TM/Mercado Bitcoin conglomerate - which competes with Binance, the content of this conversation is strictly editorial in nature.

Thanks for listening,

-AWS

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