World's largest crypto exchange loses $4 billion in value, $3b in fine/disgorgement

[thewayne]

Binance has been very naughty.

They have not been playing by the rules, including the USA's Know Your Customer (KYC) rules and have been instructing U.S. clients to disregard them, which is a violation of U.S. law.

From the article: "Under the settlement, Binance will "disgorge $1.35 billion of ill-gotten transaction fees and pay a $1.35 billion penalty" to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission..."

The KYC rules are in place to try to prevent crypto exchanges from providing havens for terrorists, ransomware extorters, and child sex traffickers.

The additional $1b loss was from withdrawals after the CEO stepped down.

As Binance is worth some $65b, the fine will hurt a bit, but they'll probably survive.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/binance-to-pay-2-7-billion-fine-after-hiding-shady-transactions-from-feds/

Comments

[disneydream06]

Somebody is going to be getting lumps of coal for Christmas. :o :o :o

They are worth $65 billion?
Does that actually exist some where?
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

That is an excellent point. The money they pay the FTC will have to be real currency, no question there. I would guess that a lot of their valuation is based on the current market valuation of the various cryptocurrencies that they're holding.

[kaishin108]

Oh my gosh, what is wrong with me this morning!
I read your post wrong to start and thought you said Beyonce then I keep reading thinking, I didn't she was into all of that? Oh my, I need to wake up. LOL :D

[thewayne]

ROFLMAO! The day that I regularly start posting about Beyonce you can call the men in the nice white coats to come pick me up. :)  Nothing wrong with her, great respect, but I don't often post about pop culture except to mock it.

[kaishin108]

Right, LOL!! That would be odd from you. :D

[silveradept]

Sometimes you want the fines to hurt so that the behavior gets changed, but that seems to be a space that not all that many regulators are willing to go.

[mtbc]

Interesting, Binance won't touch UK residents, I suspect exactly because of KYC.

[thewayne]

There's also GDPR, and considering how much American corps like to mine their client bases for data to sell, that would be a strong disincentive to deal with British subjects.  Plus KYC.