A new report from Reuters claims Binance allowed more than $2.35 billion worth of criminal funds to process through its exchange unchecked.
As per the investigation, from 2017 to 2021, Binance processed transactions totalling at least $2.35 billion stemming from hacks, investment frauds and illegal drug sales, a report by Reuters stated as they calculated from an examination of court records, statements by law enforcement and blockchain data.
The Reuters report singles out entities having allegedly laundered money through Binance, including the Lazarus Group, the North Korean cybercrime syndicate responsible for hacking $550 million from the Ronin bridge last year.
Hydra, a giant Russian-language darknet marketplace that used cryptocurrencies for the sale and purchase of drugs, is also said to have used Binance to process more than $780 million since early 2018 as per the report.
Separately, crypto researcher Chainalysis, hired by U.S. government agencies to track illegal flows, concluded in a 2020 report that Binance received criminal funds totalling $770 million in 2019 alone, more than any other crypto exchange. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao accused Chainalysis on Twitter of “bad business etiquette."
Binance, however, said it uses transaction monitoring and risk assessments to ensure that any illegal funds are tracked, frozen, recovered and/or returned to their rightful owner. A Binance spokesperson was quoted saying that “the article uses outdated information from 2019 and unverified personal attestations as a crutch to establish a false narrative” before highlighting Binance’s cooperation with law enforcement in multiple cybercrime investigations.