Binance bites granite at the DOJ, while the Italian stock exchange regulator warns investors not to use the Bitcoin exchange.
The Bitcoin exchange Binance is in an ambivalent position. On the one hand, Binance enjoys an excellent reputation among traders due to its large selection of coins and unrivaled liquidity. On the other hand, not all regulators share CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s view that a central “headquarters” is an anachronism. So it is hardly surprising that financial supervisors around the world have been trying to put Binance on the curb lately. Binance has also already dealt with the local Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
Binance in its sights: Italy’s Consob joins
Now Italy’s stock exchange regulator Consob also has the Italians in front of Binance warned.
Consob warns savers that the companies of the “Binance Group” are not authorized to offer investment services and activities in Italy, not even through the website www.binance.com, its “Derivatives” and “Stock Token” sections, which relate to instruments related to crypto assets, have so far also been written in Italian,
it says in a notice published on May 15 by the authority.
Across from the news agency Reuters Meanwhile, the Bitcoin exchange is unimpressed. Because the world’s largest crypto exchange does not conduct its business from Italy, the notification from the stock exchange regulator there has no direct impact on its services.
We take a cooperative approach to working with the supervisory authorities and take our compliance obligations very seriously,
Reuters quotes a Binance spokesman.
No thanks: Justice Department basket
As already indicated by the spokesman, the Exchange has already supported investigations in the area of tax and financial crime on several occasions – including the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
The US news portal Bloomberg has now found that the Exchange has asked the DOJ and other US law enforcement agencies to express their gratitude for this support. However, Binance bit on granite at the DOJ. “No thanks,” quoted Bloomberg the US Department of Justice response to the inquiry. Binance is legally obliged to cooperate in criminal investigations, Bloomberg quotes an anonymous DOJ source. An appreciation of the willingness to cooperate should therefore not be necessary.
The Exchange seems to have had more success with other authorities. A: e company spokesman: in from Binance forwarded various thank-you notes to Bloomberg, at least one of which came from the US tax authority IRS. The letters, however, are in parts identical. So the phrase “It is my great pleasure to convey this thank you for your cooperation in our investigations is repeated.” In addition, most of the letters ended with the promise that the respective authority would continue to “collaborate” with the crypto exchange.