Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the country’s financial services regulator, searched the local offices of Binance on Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation of the exchange’s derivatives business, a Bloomberg report said.
See related article: Crypto industry reacts to SEC’s lawsuit against Binance
Fast facts
- The regulator’s probe includes Binance Australia’s retail and wholesale clients, Bloomberg said in its report citing people familiar with the matter.
- In April, the ASIC canceled Binance Australia’s derivatives license a day after it received a cancellation request from the exchange.
- “We are winding down our local derivatives exchange to focus our efforts on our locally registered spot exchange,” Binance Australia said on Twitter on April 6.
- Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, faces a series of investigations globally. The U.S. SEC has filed a lawsuit against Binance.US, a crypto exchange set up by Binance chief Changpeng “CZ” Zhao to serve U.S. clients, for allegedly breaching securities laws.
- The SEC also named several altcoins as securities, including BNB, the native token of Binance, and therefore requiring appropriate registration.
- Binance’s French unit has also come under scrutiny after being accused of illegally operating in the country, despite the crypto exchange being registered as a digital asset service provider with France’s markets regulator since May 2022.
See related article: Why the US is waging war on Binance, Coinbase
