Reuters has been reporting that the US Department of Justice is thinking of charging Binance with money-laundering.
CZ of Binance has been predictably tweeting "FUD" and "What about FTX?"
The answer to the second question is "Different branch of US govt".
The US Justice dept has been tracking sanctioned countries (Iran, Russia) who use crypto exchanges to avoid sanction rules.
Reuters broke a story in July where they interviewed Iranians they contacted through LinkedIn, all of whom admitted using Binance to get round sanctions. Their article added the following:
The exchange's popularity in Iran was known inside the company. Senior employees knew of, and joked about, the exchange's growing ranks of Iranian users, according to 10 messages they sent to one another in 2019 and 2020 that are reported here for the first time. "IRAN BOYS," one of them wrote in response to data showing the popularity of Binance on Instagram in Iran.
The Dept of Justice was bound to follow up.
Binance is located outside the US, but could be vulnerable to secondary sanctions, where non-US banks stop dealing with them if the banks want to continue to do business with the dollar zone.
I know lots of Hiveans trade on Binance. If you must use them, stick to moving quickly to do your trade, and then remove your coins or fiat. Don't keep coins or fiat on there, your interactions with them shouldn't last more than a few hours at a time.
Remember crypto is about being your own bank.
