Two Major Crypto Exchanges responsible for criminal BTC use! Two major crypto exchanges have been found by the 2020 Crypto Crime Report by Chainalysis to be used for criminal activity – up to $2.8 billion in Bitcoin. The two exchanges? Binance and Huobi.
Binance Chief Compliance Samuel Lim responded to Chainalysis saying “In every jurisdiction that we operate in, Binance is compliant and adheres to local regulations and KYC requirements. We have built trust among regulators, financial institutions and the public through our developments and values, and we will continue to raise the bar in addressing AML compliance to the highest standard and across the largest asset coverage.”
According to the report, Chainalysis “can look at cryptocurrency’s money laundering ecosystem from a high level, and draw insights that aren’t possible when studying money laundering in the traditional fiat currency world.”
“Overall, just over 300,000 individual accounts at Binance and Huobi received Bitcoin from criminal sources in 2019… based on the total amount of Bitcoin the accounts have received individually, from both criminal and non-criminal sources. All accounts shown have received at least some criminal funds.”
The biggest culprits point to OTC (Over-The-Counter) brokers. The report states that “the 810 accounts in the three highest-receiving buckets took in a total of over $819 million in Bitcoin from criminal sources, representing 75% of the total… Our analysis suggests that many are OTC brokers.”
OTC brokers are considered crucial for the market – but they do not offer the same level of AML and KYC that exchanges do – oftentimes, OTC brokers require little to no KYC. Researchers have assembled a list of 100 OTC brokers that they believe offer money laundering services and have dubbed them the Rogue 100. Of the 100, 70 are with Huobi.
Exchanges have yet to find the perfect balance of regulations and fees to help combat the rise of money laundering. Kraken, a US-based exchange, recently released the burden regulation around the world mandates on its daily operations. They too, believe that a happy medium had yet to be found.
Our own Kurt Wuckert Jr. has a few words on this.
Kurt on Two Major Exchanges Responsible For Criminal BTC Use
At Crypto Traders Pro, we have long had our eye on Binance. At first, we respected CZ’s business savvy, and we were excited to see his unique strategy to dominate the industry.
After the Bytecoin scandal, Digibyte pay-to-play scandal, #DelistBSV, launch of the (probably illegal security) BNB token, multiple convenient “hacks” of their infrastructure and a host of evidence about fake volume and other indiscretions with Tether, Justin Sun and other scammers that has led to them being kicked out of two legal jurisdictions, NOBODY should be shocked to see that they are laundering money (with Huobi) for some of the nastiest criminals on earth.
At some point, this nasty group of people will do some other awful thing, and we will be far from it when it occurs!
What do you think? Let us know on our Facebook page!
