The Binance stand-off shows bitcoin’s limits

The Binance stand-off shows bitcoin’s limits

What's the point of making a killing in bitcoin if you can't spend the loot?

Customers of Binance, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, are confronting that question after their accounts were suddenly cut off from one of the UK's main payments systems.

Days after the Financial Conduct Authority ordered Binance to halt all regulated activities in Britain, the digital asset company stopped allowing its customers to withdraw pounds via Faster Payments, a service used by high street banks. Bank card transfers in pounds were also halted.

Binance insists that the FCA ban does not affect its business and says the links are being reinstated. Customers could still transfer their holdings to other platforms. But the sudden halt highlights a key issue for the freewheeling world of cryptocurrencies. With the notable exception of El Salvador, no country uses bitcoin as legal tender “” and even Elon Musk hasbacked off plans to accept it as payment for Teslas. Instead, crypto holders must find ways to convert it into fiat currencies.

Therein lies the rub. Regulators who have spent decades battling money laundering and terrorist financing are not about to welcome floods of anonymous money from unsupervised digital coin exchanges. The anonymity of bitcoin and