Cambodia crackdown locks out 16 crypto exchanges

• Cambodia has intensified its digital belongings regulatory measures.
• It has positioned a ban on 16 common cryptocurrency trade platforms.

Cambodia has reportedly blocked web sites of 16 crypto exchanges amid regulatory efforts to fight potential crypto associated crime.  Amongst these blocked are Binance and Coinbase.

Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency trade by buying and selling quantity and international consumer rely, whereas Coinbase is the biggest US-based crypto trade.

Cambodia’s crackdown on unregistered exchanges

In a transfer to manage the crypto house, the Cambodian authorities requires the exchanges to acquire a authorized licence from the nation’s Safety and Change Regulator and the mentioned exchanges failed to take action.

The Cambodian Telecommunication Regulator cited that the 102 websites banned have been linked to on-line playing. Shockingly, Binance which had signed a partnership with the Cambodian authorities in 2022, is amongst these whose websites are inaccessible following the TRC ban.

Nonetheless, regardless of this ban, a lot of the banned exchanges’ cellular apps stay useful.

The Nationwide Financial institution of Cambodia banned using cryptocurrency in 2017 although residents continued to gamble and do on-line exchanges of the mentioned digital belongings. The latest ban, as Nikkei Asia reported, is as a result of the exchanges lack the licenses as required by TRC.

Regardless of the unfolding growth, exchanges and different platforms play an enormous function within the growth of the nation’s rising digital belongings financial system

Binance presence in Cambodia

In 2022, Binance signed an settlement with SERC to help Cambodia’s digital belongings. The trade went additional to cement its presence within the nation with a partnership with the conglomerate Royal Group.

Binance is amongst a number of exchanges that additionally confronted an analogous state of affairs to that reported in Cambodia earlier this yr.

In January 2024, Indian authorities banned a number of platforms for failing to register.

This got here a number of days after India’s Monetary Intelligence Unit pushed for the elimination of trade apps of a number of crypto exchanges from the Apple App Retailer and Google Play Retailer. It wasn’t till August 2024 that Binance formally reentered the Indian market, paying a $2 million penalty within the course of.