The beginning of the year did not go well for Binance: Being investigated by the US, the future is unknown

Tram Ho

Binance has been accused of transferring funds without a license, conspiracy to launder money, and violating criminal sanctions since 2018.

Đầu năm không suôn sẻ của Binance: Bị Mỹ mở rộng điều tra, tương lai chưa biết ra sao - Ảnh 1.

According to Cointelegraph, US prosecutors are continuing to investigate the relationship between hedge funds and the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume – Binance. This is part of a lengthy investigation involving alleged money laundering against Binance.

The Washington Post, citing an anonymous source from a US attorney’s office in Seattle, said that investment firms have been asked to provide related filings with Binance in recent months.

For its part, Binance has not yet responded to a press request for comment on the matter.

In fact, Binance has been in the US spotlight since 2018, when prosecutors started looking into several cases of illegal money circulating in the exchange of Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Specifically, Binance is accused of transferring funds without a license, conspiracy to launder money, and violating criminal sanctions.

Đầu năm không suôn sẻ của Binance: Bị Mỹ mở rộng điều tra, tương lai chưa biết ra sao - Ảnh 2.

Binance CEO – Changpeng Zhao (CZ).

The US Bank Secrecy Act requires cryptocurrency exchanges that do “substantial” business in the country to register with the Treasury Department and comply with Anti-Money Laundering regulations.

Binance chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann admitted to the Washington Post that the company had a poor approach to regulatory compliance in its early years but has found ways to improve.

To comply with regulations, Binance became one of the first members of the Association of Certified Sanctions Professionals, or ACSS. On January 6, the exchange announced that the company would send a team to undergo certification training at ACSS.

The ACSS training is expected to educate the Binance team on regulations from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control while also informing them of potential breach risks.

Binance recently joined the crypto lobbying group associated with the American Chamber of Commerce after being criticized for being unregulated. The group advocates for a variety of public policies, including tax balancing on digital assets, anti-money laundering regulation, increased regulatory clarity for security tokens, and digital currency research. of the US central bank.

In the middle of last month, Binance suffered a wave of withdrawals amid reports that Binance’s reserve asset information was somewhat shady. Specifically, according to data from blockchain data analytics platform Nansen on the morning of December 13, about $1.9 billion was withdrawn from Binance in 24 hours.

Nansen statistics show that the withdrawal amount from Binance in 24 hours is higher than all other centralized exchanges combined. According to blockchain data platform Arkham Intelligence, since the bankruptcy of Sam Bankman-Fried FTX exchange last month, this is the second largest withdrawal in the cryptocurrency market and the largest in Binance history in the past five years. .

This withdrawal follows a series of reports regarding Binance and investors becoming increasingly cautious about their funds on the centralized exchange. The rapid collapse of FTX and the failure of others in the industry has prompted exchanges to demonstrate good control of customer assets.

Reuters at the time reported that US prosecutors were looking into criminal charges against Binance’s ability to launder money and its senior executives, including CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Source: Cointelegraph

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