Binance Crackdown Unleashes Unprecedented Scrutiny on Crypto Transactions
The recent crackdown on Binance by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has triggered a seismic shift in how the crypto industry operates, with Binance now set to undergo what experts call an “unprecedented” level of scrutiny.
The government scrutiny, which Binance has agreed to in its settlement deal with the US government, will transform the exchange from “a haven for anarchic crypto commerce” to a meticulously monitored entity, Wired wrote in a report from earlier this month.
The settlement, considered one of the most substantial money-laundering settlements in the history of the US Justice Department, imposed a record-breaking $4.3 billion fine on the company.
Beyond financial penalties, the settlement mandated Binance to open its past books, and provide over five years of users’ transaction records to US regulators and law enforcement agencies, the Wired report noted.
This new era of radical transparency requires Binance to actively scrutinize its transactions from 2018 to 2022, and file so-called suspicious activity reports (SARs) for potential violations of US law during that period.
The SARs will be collected by FinCEN, the Treasury Department’s financial crimes division, and shared with various US law enforcement agencies.
In the Wired report, one unnamed US prosecutor described the extent of the information Binance will share with the government as “kind of crazy,” while emphasizing the unprecedented level of government oversight.
“I don’t know what kind of business would want to operate while allowing that much government oversight, especially one that’s deliberately stayed out of the US so that they’re not under our nose,” the prosecutor said, adding:
“The other option must have been really bad.”
On the other hand,
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