The 5th largest cryptocurrency at the moment, $BNB, is being investigated by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) over potential violations during its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO).
- A Bloomberg report published today cited anonymous sources stating the SEC is investigating whether or not BNB was registered as a security at the time of the ICO. The SEC claims that most cryptocurrencies are a security, targeting various ICOs in the past.
- Although the SEC’s probe is still months away from final conclusions and legal action may not be taken against the firm or any individual, sources said.
- Binance affirmed their compliance witht the SEC, stating that “we will continue to meet all requirements set by regulators,” and “it would not be appropriate for us to comment on our ongoing conversations with regulators.”
- Yesterday, Reuters published an extensive investigation against Binance for becoming a conduit for hackers resulting in at least $2.35 billion in illicit funds being laundered from 2017-to 2021, in this period Binance had weak Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer protections.
- The investigation references various hacks, namely the Eterbase hack of 2020, which had $5.4 million stolen and some of this was laundered through Binance. Hydra, the world’s largest darknet drugs market was also mentioned which used Binance to make and receive payments in crypto worth $780 million.
- Despite this, Binance told Forbes that the Reuters report was “woefully misinformed op-ed that uses outdated information from 2019 and unverified personal attestations.” With Binances COO Patrick Hillmann stating that the company works closely with law enforcement to “ensure that any illegal funds are tracked, frozen, recovered and/or returned to their rightful owner.”
