So... I got an email from Binance this morning. In it they said that I have been identified as a "US person", and so as a result they are closing my Binance account. The email says that as an American, I have to use Binance.us and I can't appeal this decision. So... that's a good way to begin the day. Good news, everyone, eh? (said as sarcastically as possible)

Of course, yeah, I mean that is why they started Binance.us, to keep Americans in a walled garden at the behest of the US gov, but I am in Japan so I've been able to get past this so far and I thought I'd be able to continue getting past it. I guess no more. They are evidently looking at other data and not just location to determine if someone is an American.

Will I open a Binance.us account. Uhm... no. My options are dwindling though. I can't use Coinbase. Long story short: they got confused by me being in Japan and blacklisted my SSN. Oh well. I think there are a few Japanese exchanges that I have until this point been ignoring. Guess I'll be looking into them now. I'd just as soon skip all exchanges anyway. Are we at a point where that's possible?

I did a DuckDuckGo search and came across a decentralized exchange called Bisq. If you are on a Mac, you can easily install it via Homebrew (if you already have Homebrew installed, just type this in the terminal: brew install --cask bisq). If you are on Windows, get it here. It looks interesting. It runs over Tor, so it is slow as hell. Unfortunately, also, trading is limited: it only trades BTC for fiat. I'll explore it anyway and maybe try to make a trade.

Does anyone know any other decentralized exchanges?

Anyway, if you are also an American who doesn't live in America and are smugly still using Binance as I was, confident that you were free to do what your fellow countrymen couldn't, watch out: they may get you next like they got me.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.