Binance Expects Fines in U.S. Investigations
Binance intends to pay U.S. authorities for past compliance inquiries and crimes.
Binance, the biggest digital asset exchange in the world, is getting ready to resolve pending regulatory and law-enforcement investigations in the United States by paying fines and other types of penalties.
According to an article that was published in the WSJ on February 15 and that quoted the company's chief strategy officer, Patrick Hillmann, Binance has been working with authorities to rectify previous compliance difficulties.
Binance is "working with authorities to find out what are the remediations we have to go through today to make apologies for that," according to Hillmann, who is Binance's Chief Compliance Officer.
He went on to say that the conclusion of the current investigations would most certainly be penalties, but that there is also the possibility that there may be other consequences.
In the United States, cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been the focus of many investigations, including one that was initiated in 2018 by the Department of Justice and concerns alleged breaches of laws against money laundering.
In addition, an investigation was conducted by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in March 2021 to determine whether or whether the firm marketed cryptocurrency futures to consumers in the United States without first registering with the agency.
In February of this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into the U.S. subsidiary of Binance concerning trading entities that are tied to the company's CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
Binance is "very confident and feeling extremely good about where those negotiations are going," according to Hillmann, who also said that the company was unable to give a number on the amount of the penalties or a timeline on when they would be resolved with U.S. authorities.
According to him, this is a "particularly challenging period for us" since there is a lack of clarity on crypto in the United States.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has lately intensified what some in the industry refer to as a "war on crypto." This "war on crypto" seems to be aimed at specific staking services and stablecoins, both of which the SEC has determined to be subject to securities regulations.
The CEO of Binance said, in reference to the current enforcement effort, that it "would have a tremendously significant and long-lasting chilling impact in the United States."
Paxos came into trouble with New York authorities earlier this week, which resulted in the company being barred from releasing any more of the Binance-branded stablecoin BUSD.
As a result of SEC enforcement action, the American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken was forced to cease its staking services and given a fine of thirty million dollars only a week ago.
Patrick Hillmann came to the conclusion that finding a solution to the problems with the United States authorities would be beneficial for the company and its future.
"It will be a fantastic time for our firm because it will enable us to put it behind us," said the CEO. "It will allow us to put it behind us."
Binance does not want to provide any more remarks on the topic and hence refused to do so.
Image source: Shutterstock
