Bybit announced the suspension on Saturday, adding that withdrawals through wire transfers, including SWIFT, will be halted from March 10.
Crypto exchange Bybit on Saturday announced a suspension of U.S. dollar (USD) deposits for national and international customers.
“We have temporarily suspended USD deposits via Wire Transfer (including SWIFT) due to service outages from our end-point processing partner until further notice.”
the exchange said, adding that withdrawals will be stopped from March 10
Users, however, can continue to deposit and withdraw crypto to and from wallet addresses and fund purchases through credit cards and other payment methods.
“The payment gateway interruption is limited in scope and does not involve other fiat or crypto currencies and/or account funding channels. Users can still buy crypto currencies in USD using their debit and credit cards through other channels. We are closely urging our partners for alternative solutions, and will keep our users and stakeholders posted as soon as there are further developments.”
Bybit’s decision comes only a month after Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange by trading volume, banned dollar payments, and amid a crisis at Silverage, a California-based lender known for providing traditional banking services to crypto enterprises, including exchanges. Silvergate announced last week that the company is assessing its capacity to continue as a going concern and has postponed filing its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bybit Mitigating Silvergate Crisis
According to Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at crypto services provider Matrixport, Bybit’s decision to follow Binance’s lead amid the Silvergate crisis is a big deal for the crypto market.
“When Binance halted USD transfers in January, bitcoin prices dropped -10%. Obviously, Binance has a much bigger impact than other exchanges but also now ByBit will halt USD transfers from March 10 onwards. This action is now preventing SWIFT (international) and Wire transfers (national) to reach some crypto exchanges and is indeed a BIG deal.”
