Binance to Shut Down Its Visa Debit Card Services in EEA in December

Crypto giant Binance announced last Friday (October 20) that it will stop offering its Visa debit card services in the European Economic Area (EEA) on December 20, 2023. Binance accounts will not be affected, said the exchange.

The Binance Visa debit card service was launched in the EEA in September, 2020, allowing users to convert crypto assets in their Binance accounts into local currencies to pay for their purchases in stores and online.

According to the latest announcement, Binance's card issuer, Finansinės paslaugos "Contis" — or Contis Financial Services — will stop issuing the card. Contis is a Lithuanian electronic money institution and currency exchange operator owned by German banking-as-a-service platform Solaris Group, which is active in 30 European countries.

Binance stated in the announcement: "Your Binance accounts are not affected. Holders of the Binance Visa Debit Card issued under the EEA program will have until December 20, 2023, 00:00 (UTC+0) to use their cards, after which card purchases will no longer be possible."

The exchange also noted that only a small fraction of its users, approximately 1%, will be affected.

The move comes one day after Binance said that it had found new partners​ to restore euro deposit, withdrawal, and payment services. Prior to that, Binance announced on September 27 that its euro deposit and withdrawal service has been unavailable since September 28 as "Paysafe Payment Solutions Limited (Paysafe) unilaterally decided to stop processing EUR deposits for Binance users."

Cryptocurrency exchanges, represented by Binance, are facing increasingly stringent regulatory pressure. Last week, Binance U.S. suspended its direct US dollar withdrawals​. Its efforts in the UK have also been thwarted, and regulatory pressure halted new user sign-ups there from October 16th.

Brain drain is also a problem for Binance. Last week, Stéphanie Cabossioras resigned as executive director of Binance France. So far, the exchange has lost more than a dozen executives this year, including Binance U.S. CEO Brian Shroder​, Head of Legal Krishna Juvvadi and Chief Risk Officer Sidney Majalya, as well as Binance Head of Product Mayur Kamat​.