Today, the CFTC filed a surprising and disappointing civil complaint despite our cooperation with the CFTC for over two years.
Upon preliminary review, the complaint appears to be incomplete in its statement of facts, and we disagree with the characterization of many issues in the complaint. While we can only give a full answer in due course, we discuss a few key points below.
Compliance and US Blocks technology. Binance.com has developed best-in-class technology to ensure compliance. Binance.com was the first global (non-US) exchange to implement a mandatory KYC program, and it still has one of the highest standards for KYC and AML today. We block US users by nationality (KYC), IP (including commonly used VPN endpoints outside the US), mobile carrier, device fingerprinting, bank deposits and withdrawals, blockchain deposits and withdrawals, credit card numbers, and more.
To our knowledge, no other company uses a more comprehensive or efficient system than Binance.
Cooperation and transparency with law enforcement. Binance is committed to transparency and cooperation with regulators and law enforcement (LE) in the US and globally. Binance currently has more than 750 people on its compliance team, many of whom have backgrounds in law enforcement and regulators. We have processed over 55,000 LE requests to date, assisted US LEs in freezing/seizure over $125 million in funds in 2022 alone, and $160 million in 2023 so far.
We intend to continue to respect and cooperate with other regulators in the United States and around the world.
Registration and Licensing. Binance.com has the highest number of licenses/registrations in the world (16 and counting) and is well regarded by our user community.
trade. Under no circumstances will Binance.com trade for profit or "manipulate" the market. Binance also "trades" in many cases. Our income is in cryptocurrency. We do need to convert them from time to time to pay for fiat or other cryptocurrencies. We have branches that provide Liquidity for less Liquidity trading pairs. These subsidiaries are specially monitored and cannot make large profits.
I have two accounts with Binance: a Binance Card and a cryptocurrency account that I personally hold. I eat my own "dog food" and store my own cryptocurrency on Binance. I also need to switch cryptocurrencies from time to time to pay my personal expenses or bank cards.
Binance.com has a 90-day no-trade day rule for employees, which means employees are not allowed to sell coins within 90 days of their most recent purchase, and vice versa. This is to prevent any employees from actively trading. We also prohibit employees from futures trading. Also, we have a strict policy that anyone can access private information such as listing details, Launchpad etc and they are not allowed to buy or sell these coins.
I strictly abide by these policies myself. I also never participated in Binance Launchpad, Earn, Margin or Futures. I know the best use of my time is to build a solid platform that serves our users.
At Binance, we seek friendly solutions to all problems. We work with regulators and government agencies around the world. While we are not perfect, we hold ourselves to high standards, often higher than required by existing regulations. Most importantly, we believe in doing the right thing for our users at all times. On this journey to monetary freedom, we don't expect everything to be easy. We do not shy away from challenges.
We appreciate your unwavering support!
CZ
CEO @Binance
