Yesterday, Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, took to its official Twitter page to deny allegations of market manipulation and trading against its users.
In a Twitter thread yesterday, Binance stated that there are allegations of manipulating the cryptocurrency market which is spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). In the thread, the exchange stated that it, “reserves the right to take legal action to protect its interests,” but was not opposed to “responsible whistle-blowing that protects the trust of our community.” It is however unclear if the exchange is referring to any specific incident.
Binance in 2021, has been the target of authorities in multiple countries which includes Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Cayman Islands, Thailand, Canada, Japan, Singapore and the Netherlands, warning investors to exercise caution with regard to the company or claiming it is operating illegally. The warnings from regulators have likely led to some financial institutions, especially in the U.K, disallowing customers send payments to the exchange.
The exchange is also the subject of more than one class-action lawsuit alleging it violated its rules on futures trading. Italy-based legal and consulting firm Lexia Avvocati announced in July it was representing investors who lost “tens of millions” of dollars due to not being able to manage their trading positions and view their balances due to the crypto exchange going offline for several hours on different days.
Liti Capital, a Switzerland-based litigation funding provider, has made similar allegations in a separate class-action lawsuit filed this month.
Bottomline
Binance seems to be striving to be more regulatory compliant as the company has been making big moves to improve its regulatory team. Last week, Binance hired Greg Monahan, former US Treasury Criminal Investigator, as Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer (GMLRO). This is one of many appointments which includes Jonathan Farnell as Director of Compliance, former FATF executives Rick McDonell and Josée Nadeau as compliance and regulatory advisors and former US Senator Max Baucus as policy and government relations advisor.
Binance stated it has improved its regulatory team by 500% since 2020 and it plans to improve the team by another 1000% before the end of the year. Its native token, BNB, is currently trading $497 as of the time of this writing. It traded as high as $505 yesterday, with a market capitalization of approximately $84 billion.
