Binance Anticipates Fines and Penalties Amid SEC Investigations

In Brief

• The Chief Strategy Officer of Binance stated that the cryptocurrency exchange will likely need to pay fines.
• The Justice Department has been looking into Binance over money laundering allegations, reports note.
• Kraken was recently hit with a $30M fine following an SEC probe.

Binance’s chief strategy officer stated that the crypto exchange would likely need to pay fines to resolve ongoing SEC inquiries into its U.S. operations.

The Wall Street Journal noted in its report that the Justice Department has been looking into Binance. This is over possible contraventions of US anti-money laundering legislation.

Binance Anticipates SEC Fines
Executive Patrick Hillmann stated that Binance has been striving to close any holes in its early compliance efforts. Despite that, he still anticipates that regulators will levy fines for the previous behavior.

According to media sources, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is looking into whether Binance marketed cryptocurrency derivatives to customers in the United States without legally notifying and registering with the regulator.

Hillmann noted that the company is “working with regulators to figure out what are the remediations we have to go through now to make amends for that.” Despite this, he anticipates that regulators could impose fines or more. However, he isn’t sure about the size of the penalty.

Instead, he said in the interview that he is “highly confident and feeling really good about where those discussions are going.”

He also hinted at the need for more regulatory clarity in the U.S. markets and further added, “It will be a good moment for our company because it allows us to put it behind us.”

Kraken’s Run-in With Regulators
Apart from Binance, Kraken also had a run-in with the SEC. The agency was investigating if Kraken offered unregistered securities in the U.S. Recently, Kraken agreed to settle an inquiry against its staking investment program by paying the SEC $30 million in fines.

While Binance is the largest exchange by volume and trust score, Kraken ranks fifth on CoinGecko. And the probe has hurt business. BeInCrypto has emphasized that Binance has recently seen record outflows as regulators step in to tighten restrictions on its stablecoin dealings.

The SEC also cautioned Paxos this week that listing and issuing Binance USD might be breaking securities regulations. Soon after, Paxos declared it would no longer work with Binance to mint the BUSD stablecoin.

Disclaimer
BeInCrypto has reached out to company or individual involved in the story to get an official statement about the recent developments, but it has yet to hear back.