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A Reuters analysis of Binance's corporate filings shows that the core of the business remains mostly hidden from public view. Binance declines to say where Binance.com is based. It doesn't disclose basic financial information such as revenue, profit and cash reserves. The company has its own crypto coin, but doesn't reveal what role it plays on its balance sheet. It lends customers money against their crypto assets and lets them trade on margin, with borrowed funds. But it doesn't detail how big those bets are, how exposed Binance is to that risk, or the full extent of its reserves to finance withdrawals. Binance is not required to publish detailed financial statements because it is not a public company, unlike U.S. rival Coinbase, which is listed on the Nasdaq. Nor has Binance raised outside capital since 2018, industry data show, which means it hasn't had to share financial information with external investors since then. And as Reuters reported in October, Binance has actively avoided oversight. Zhao approved a plan by lieutenants to "insulate" Binance's main operation from U.S. regulatory scrutiny by setting up a new American exchange, according to company messages and interviews with former employees, advisers and business associates. Zhao denied signing off on the plan and said the unit was set up with advice from top law firms.

Binance routinely commingled customer funds with operating capital, according to the latest Reuters report on alleged malfeasance at the world's largest digital asset exchange.  The report claims that Binance violated U.S. financial rules regarding the strict separation of customer funds from company revenue in 2020 and 2021. This commingling reportedly occurred "almost daily" at accounts Binance held at the since-collapsed crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank in California. The extent of the commingling allegedly "ran into billions of dollars." https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/crypto-binance-money/

Binance has reached a deal to buy the rival crypto exchange FTX for an undisclosed amount. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that "there is a significant liquidity crunch" at FTX and that after FTX asked for Binance's help, they "signed a non-binding letter of intent, intending to fully acquire FTX and help cover the liquidity crunch." Zhao added that Binance will be conducting full due diligence in the coming days, and the firm has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time. Days earlier, Binance had announced that it would sell all of its FTX FTT governance tokens, which set in motion the chaos that resulted in FTX's liquidity woes.

Belgium's Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) ordered Binance to cease all offers of virtual currency services in the country - immediately. "The FSMA has noted that Binance is offering and providing exchange services in Belgium between virtual currencies and legal currencies, as well as custody wallet services, from countries that are not members of the European Economic Area." FSMA said Binance did not dispute that it offered those services in Belgium. https://www.fsma.be/en/news/fsma-orders-binance-cease-immediately-all-offers-virtual-currency-services-belgium

"We're still on the SEC's complaint against BAM Trading (Binance.US), Binance.com, and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao ("CZ"). It's a good complaint!"

The European subsidiary of Binance has launched a British pound-pegged stablecoin. Starting today, Binance Jersey has started offering a British pound-backed Binance called GBP Stablecoin (BGBP), The Block confirmed with Binance.

Amy Castor reports that Binance customer funds continue to increasingly become trapped inside of Binance, as the fiat exits close around the exchange . Binance has told its UK customers that it had disabled GBP withdrawals after its key payment partner, Clear Junction, ended its business relationship with the exchange. Clear Junction provides access to the UK Faster Payments network.

Binance announced that users in Singapore will no longer have access to fiat deposits, crypto spot trading, liquid swap and crypto purchases via fiat channels on its main Binance.com website. The restrictions are being imposed for regulatory compliance reasons. However, Binance also operates a separate local platform, which has applied for a licence in Singapore. Like other applicants, it is allowed to operate in Singapore under an exemption while the MAS processes applications.

Malaysia's Securities Commission (SC) served a public reprimand against Binance, calling for the exchange and all of its entities to cease operations in the country. The SC stated that Binance continued to operate in Malaysia despite previous warnings. https://www.sc.com.my/resources/media/media-release/sc-takes-enforcement-actions-on-binance-for-illegally-operating-in-malaysia

Binance.com is removing itself from app stores in Singapore, as well as ending support for trading pairs and payment options in the Singapore dollar (SGD). The move came after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) placed Binance.com on the Investor Alert List, which contains the names of unregulated financial services entities illegally offering services in the city-state. The local unit (Binance.sg) has already applied for a MAS license and is currently operating in the country under a granted exemption for a specified period.

According to a Reuters report, Binance kept weak know-your-customer (KYC) checks and did not properly cooperate with authorities, despite its public promises about compliance. The report was based on interviews with dozens of former employees of Binance, advisers and business partners, as well as the review of hundreds of documents. According to the report, Binance has refused to answer regulators and partners' questions about its operations, and ignored its own compliance advisor recommendations to avoid customers in countries with money laundering risk.

Crypto exchange Binance has reportedly lifted its service restrictions for Russian users that were implemented last year following the start of Russia's Ukraine invasion. Binance users in Russia can now deposit Russian rubles and other currencies using bank cards issued in Russia. Additionally, the exchange removed the limits on balances of more than EUR 10,000 on Russia-linked accounts. https://forklog.com/news/binance-prokommentirovala-blokirovku-kriptokart-prozhivayushhim-v-es-rossiyanam

Binance said Signature Bank will only handle user transactions of more than $100,000 as of February 1, 2023. According to Binance, this is the case for all of Signature Bank's crypto exchange clients, and only its Signature Bank customers are affected. An earlier story from AsiaMarkets.com said that this limit applied to all banks. Also, Binance said that only 0.01% of its average monthly users are serviced by Signature Bank, but those customers would still be able to use their credit or debit cards to buy or sell cryptocurrencies. Also, SWIFT-based transfers would remain in operation for non-USD bank transfers, and the change wouldn't impact its "corporate accounts."

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against Binance, its U.S. platform and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in the District Court for the District of Columbia. There were 13 charges, including unregistered offers and sales of the BNB and BUSD tokens, the Simple Earn and BNB Vault products and its staking program. In addition, the SEC alleges in the suit that Binance failed to register its Binance.com platform as an exchange or a broker-dealer clearing agency. CZ was sued as a "controlling person." https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-101

"The SEC lawsuit shares similarities to the CFTC one. For example, both allege that the company only pretended that the international Binance platform and its Binance.US arm were operated separately, while in reality they were both fully controlled by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Both lawsuits go into detail about how executives at the company explicitly discussed Binance's plan to create a US arm of the company solely as a regulatory diversion. T"

Reuters recently published a series of investigative reports on Binance and its association with illicit activity, claiming that Binance has become a hub for criminal activity and that it overlooked several money-laundering red flags. In a CoinDesk interview, Tigran Gambaryan and Matthew Price, key members of Binance's compliance team and former investigators at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's cybercrime unit, disputed a number of these claims. In particular, they claimed that proportional to trading volumes, illicit trading on Binance is no worse than on other exchanges.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has agreed to step down from his role at Binance as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. He also plans to plead guilty to violating criminal U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements that would potentially allow the exchange to keep operating... Zhao will appear in federal court in Seattle on November 22 to enter his guilty plea... and Binance... will plead guilty and pay $4.3 billion in fines and settlements with authorities."

"Recent news reports have shone a light on Binance-Peg BUSD ("PBUSD") and how it doesn't always appear to have been completely backed by BUSD issued by Paxos. PBUSD is minted on several blockchain networks including BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, and TRON. PBUSD has always been, and continues to be, 100% collateralized. However, the collateral has not always been stored in a single, dedicated wallet in real time so that the 1:1 backing was not always immediately visible to users. Binance undertook a project to centralize the collateral in a single, dedicated wallet; this was completed on 04 January 2023 so that users have visibility into the 1:1 backing of PBUSD. Minting of PBUSD now only takes place after collateral is added to the dedicated wallet. Centralization of collateral for all Binance-backed tokens into dedicated collateral wallets will be completed by 09 February. This will be visible in the Proof of Reserves system that we are continuing to develop."

"BUSD is natively issued on Ethereum, thus limiting its usage outside of the Ethereum ecosystem. In order to extend BUSD's utility to other blockchains, Binance offers a wrapped version of the stablecoin, Binance-Peg BUSD, which is designed to track the value of the original, ERC-20 BUSD at a 1:1 ratio. "Wrapping" tokens is blockchain lingo for creating versions of the original asset that are transportable to other chains for the sake of increasing interoperability and the interconnectedness of the digital asset space. Normally, the value of wrapped tokens is secured by locking the collateral of the original asset, which is the case with Binance-Peg BUSD."

Binance and stablecoin issuer Paxos announced a partnership to integrate a new deposit gateway on Binance.com that will allow traders to exchange fiat directly for PAX on the Paxos platform and benefit from the stablecoin's liquidity on the Binance exchange.