US probes crypto exchange Binance on possible insider trading, market manipulation

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Binance, the Cayman Island-based world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume, had been probed by US officials over a swathe of illicit activities ranging from insider trading to market manipulation, dealing a hefty blow to the crypto exchange founded by a Changpeng Zhao back in 2017, that became a subject to potential regulatory scrutiny over recent past, a Bloomberg news report had revealed late on Friday citing unnamed sources given the scale of sensitivity of the issue.

On top of that, the Bloomberg news report had quoted sources as saying that US regulators were looking to malicious transactions that could enable Binance or its staffs to take advantage of their clients through several demeanours such as market manipulation and insider trading.

Nonetheless, as a repercussion to latest Bloomberg news report, Binance said in a statement, “At Binance, we have a zero-tolerance policy for insider trading and a strict ethical code related to any type of behaviour that could have a negative impact on our customers or industry”.

Binance being probed by US regulators on illicit transactions

Nevertheless, recent Bloomberg news report on Binance’s plausible involvement in wide-ranging unlawful transactions comes over the heels of a flurry of regulatory warnings from financial watchdogs of a number of countries including Britain, Germany and Japan, all of which had expressed grave concerns that a wide-spread use of Binance’s trading platform would heighten up the risks of money laundering around the globe.

However, Binance, which was turned into the world’s largest digital asset exchange firm in less than half a decade, had held back some of its product offerings following stiffer scrutiny from a cascade of Central Bank authorities, while the crypto exchange, based on Cayman Island, also had told in recent weeks that it had been working out options to recoup relations with regulators.