Agencies around the world have been tightening cryptocurrency regulatory screws by taking enforcement action against companies from the space. After the collapse of FTX, regulators have become even more mindful. Kraken, for instance, recently agreed to end its “staking” program in the U.S. and pay $30 million to settle an SEC probe. Paxos, on the other hand, was ordered by the New York Department of Financial Services to stop issuing the Binance USD stablecoin.
Also Read: Paxos Ordered To Stop Issuing Binance USD Stablecoin
Binance expects to pay fines for past conduct
A recent report from Wall Street Journal revealed that Binance is now preparing to pay penalties to make up for its past violations. During its early days, the world’s largest exchange was allegedly fueled by software engineers not familiar with laws and rules pertaining to the risk of bribery and corruption, money laundering, and economic sanctions. The firm’s Chief Strategy Officer, Patrick Hillmann, expects regulators to impose fines for past conduct.
Elaborating on the same, Hillmann told the WSJ,
The company is “working with regulators to figure out what are the remediations we have to go through now to make amends for that.” The outcome will be “likely a fine, could be more.…We just don’t know. That is for regulators to decide.“
Also Read – Crypto: Nearly $1B Flows Out of Binance in a Single Day
The executive, however, could not estimate the number of fines or chalk out a timeline outlining when Binance could potentially reach a resolution with U.S. authorities. However, he asserted that the exchange is “highly confident and feeling really good about where those discussions are going.”
Hillmann added,
“It will be a good moment for our company because it allows us to put it behind us.”
The Justice Department has reportedly been investigating Binance over potential violations of U.S. anti-money-laundering law. Parallelly, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] has been examining if the exchange offered cryptocurrency derivatives to U.S. clients without properly registering that activity with the commission.