An inquiry into the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, financial activities by Reuters, reveals that the exchange platform has aided in laundering no less than $2.35 billion in corrupt funds, over a five year period. In a recurring pattern, as published by Reuters investigation report, Binance has helped launder money originating from scams, hacks, investment frauds, illegal drug sales, a foreign exchange violation case among others in the last five years.
Is Binance aiding money laundering through crypto?
Reuters report details several cases of money laundering on the crypto exchange. Dark net markets laundered $839 million. Crypto scams like the Finiko Ponzi scheme, Cyber storm fraud case, Thodex scam, e.t.c laundered over $1.29 billion. Funds from hacks also amount to $27 million.
With the inflow of illegal funds under the cover of privacy or anonymity, XMR or Monero, a popular coin traded on the platform has been outed severally for its dirty usage but the coin continues to be traded on the platform.
The U.S. government also hired crypto researcher Chainalysis, to monitor illegal flows, and it was reported that Binance received criminal funds totalling $770 million in 2019 alone, another report by Crystal Blockchain, showed that a Russian-language site called Hydra, used Binance to make and receive crypto payments worth $780 million.
Binance’s stand on crypto and money laundering
On the 5th of May, Binance published an article namely, “Crypto and Money laundering: an inconvenient truth”. Here, the exchange platform points out that people against crypto always think crypto is worthless, or it’s a money laundering scheme.
The article reads, “Unlike cash, which is nearly impossible to track, Blockchain has proven to be one of the most powerful tools for law enforcement. The immutable, public nature of the blockchain makes crypto a poor choice for money laundering…”.
The exchange platform says crypto is simply unfitting for money laundering as shown in several cases. It also wrote that the company has spent millions in employing “the most sophisticated cyber forensic team”. Binance promises to continue to protect users and build.
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