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Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reached a settlement agreement with US authorities, resulting in more than $4.3 billion in payments, including a $1.8 billion criminal fine and forfeiture of $2.5 billion. The deal comes after its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to federal charges. The settlement also includes credits of approximately $1.6 billion from settlements with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under of the amount of the confiscation.
In the latest financial moves, Binance moved a significant amount of stablecoins on Wednesday, moving $3.9 billion worth of stablecoins from a wallet called “Binance-Cold 2” to another wallet called “Binance 3.” As a result of this transaction, “Binance-Cold 2” holds assets worth $6.6 billion. The “Binance 3” wallet now contains assets worth a total of $3.6 billion, primarily in USDT (), one of the most widely used stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market.
The “Binance 3” wallet was created in August 2022 and has since been involved in a relatively small number of transactions, with only 338 recorded to date. Tether revealed that the total global issuance of USDT stands at approximately 88.3 billion, with significant issuance on blockchain networks such as Tron (46.8 billion) and (40 billion).
This settlement and the internal restructuring of Binance assets follows a period of intense scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges and their compliance with international regulations. Binance’s legal agreement with US regulators marks one of the largest digital currency settlements to date.
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