TL;DR Breakdown
- US authorities investigating Binance for market manipulation.
- Binance responds, says it has zero tolerance for manipulation.
US authorities, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), have begun investigating Binance exchange for “possible insider trading and market manipulation.”
Bloomberg reports that a broad investigation by US authorities into the exchange activities would be checked, including if Binance or its staff profited by taking advantage of its customers.
According to the global media firm, US authorities are looking at a wide-ranging inquiry into Binance, encompassing efforts from the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Justice, and the CFTC.
The case is so difficult authorities have been getting in touch with possible witnesses as part of the new inquiry area. This comes at a time the exchange began efforts to improve its compliance and regulatory efforts. The exchange back in August enforced mandatory KYC on its users.
The exchange firm noted then that the decision was part of a process to “determine changes and improvements in light of evolving global compliance standards.” In the same vein, the exchange announced on Friday that it has improved its Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) efforts.
Binance, in its announcement, stated that the move was to better user protection and risk management protocols, especially as crypto becomes more mainstream and crypto regulations around the world advance further.
The exchange firm has come out to say that there is no foul play in its dealings.
Binance exchange said this in a statement noting that the firm has a “zero-tolerance” policy for insider trading and a “strict ethical code” to prevent any misconduct that could hurt its customers or the crypto industry.
They noted that t Binance’s security team has long-standing guidelines for investigating wrongdoing and holding workers accountable, with termination being the minimal repercussion.
US authorities, however, are keen on finding out if the world’s biggest crypto trading platform allows insider trading and manipulation of the crypto market.
