Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, encountered a ban on its operations in Venezuela on August 9th. This ban came as a result of the country’s presidential disputes. Over the past few weeks, Venezuela has prohibited several prominent platforms, including X, which was founded by Elon Musk. The ban on Binance was implemented on Friday, and it was reported by the anti-censorship organization “VE sin Filtro” on August 10th.
The Venezuelan government has been grappling with citizen protests and political turmoil since the presidential elections on July 28th. According to a report by Reuters, the nation’s election authority declared that the incumbent president, Nicolas Maduro, won re-election with 51% of the votes. However, the opposition leader, Edmundo Gonzalez, claimed to have won the election with 70% of the votes. This disagreement led to legal battles and censorship by the President. Ve sin Filtro also detected a DNS blocking that affected the normal functioning of its website and mobile application.
Despite these challenges, the citizens of Venezuela have shown significant interest in the cryptocurrency exchange in the past week. It is worth mentioning that in May, the country disconnected cryptocurrency mining firms from its power grid due to excessive energy consumption. During the ban, the government confiscated around 2000 mining firms located in various places.
In response to the ban in Venezuela, Binance’s Latin American team reassured its users on X about the safety of their funds. They acknowledged that the firm, like other websites in the country, faced restrictions during the ten-day ban on X. Interestingly, this ban came after an online dispute between Elon Musk and Nicolas Maduro.
Binance also addressed another issue in its announcement, stating that its Indian platform had incurred fees for GST (Goods and Services Tax) in the past week. The Indian government demanded 722 crore INR, equivalent to $86 million, from Binance in fees.
In today’s highlighted crypto news, there is speculation about whether Solana can recover from its recent decline.
