Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, said it has worked with regulatory agencies from around the world to address outstanding compliance questions, following a Reuters report that U.S. federal prosecutors asked the exchange to offer internal records involving founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao for anti-money laundering checks in late 2020.
See related article: Binance spent over US$1B on compliance, founder Changpeng Zhao says
Fast facts
- “As has been well documented, regulators across the globe are reaching out to every major crypto exchange to better understand our industry. We work with agencies regularly to address any outstanding questions,” a Binance spokesperson told Forkast in an email in response to the Reuters report.
- The U.S. Justice Department in 2020 asked Binance to voluntarily submit messages from Zhao and other executives and partners on matters related to the company’s detection of illegal transactions involving U.S. users, Reuters reported.
- Zhao on Thursday tweeted that it is “important for the industry to build trust with regulators” and that his chat messages “are semi-public anyway.”
- In early August, Zhao said the exchange has spent over US$1 billion on compliance efforts with its market share continuing to increase.
- In June, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was reportedly looking into whether Binance violated any rules regarding the sale of securities when its BNB token was sold through an initial coin offering in 2017.
See related article: SEC said to probe Binance for rule violation in 2017 initial coin offering: report
