Bloomberg: ‘US Department of Justice opens investigation into Binance’

The US Department of Justice and US federal tax authorities have opened an investigation into the financial practices on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. That writes Bloomberg news agency.

According to Bloomberg, federal researchers specializing in tracing money laundering and tax evasion have collected information about the cryptocurrency exchange from individuals who know the company inside out.

A Binance spokesperson told The Verge did not address the matter but stated that the company is strongly monitoring the policies they have in connection with money laundering and that it provides tools that financial institutions can use to detect and report suspicious transactions. “We take our legal responsibility very seriously,” he says.

It’s not the only research currently on Binance. The US stock market watchdog Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened an investigation into Binance in March because it wants to find out whether Binance allowed its US clients to trade investment instruments covered by US law when it was not then licensed to do so. Binance has not yet been formally suspected.

According to crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, approximately $ 756 million in criminal transactions passed through the cryptocurrency exchange in 2019. Binance has been the largest cryptocurrency exchange since April 2021. At the time of writing, the exchange handles approximately $ 61 billion in trading volume.