Written by: CZ

Compiled by: Moni, Odaily

On the evening of March 27, Bloomberg revealed that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit in Chicago federal court against the cryptocurrency trading platform Binance and its CEO CZ and first chief operating officer Samuel Lim.

On March 28, CZ issued a response on the official Binance website. The full text is as follows:

Today, despite more than two years of cooperation between Binance and the CFTC, the CFTC filed an unexpected and disappointing civil lawsuit. After a preliminary review, the complaint appears to contain an incomplete statement of facts, and Binance disagrees with the characterization of many of the alleged issues in the lawsuit. While Binance will only be able to provide a full response in due course, this article will address a few key points. .

Compliance and US Blockade Technology

Binance.com has developed best-in-class technology to ensure compliance and was the first global (non-US) exchange to implement a mandatory KYC program, and today remains one of the exchanges with the highest KYC and AML standards.

Binance blocks US users by nationality (KYC), IP (including VPN endpoints commonly used outside the US), mobile carrier, device fingerprinting, bank deposits and withdrawals, blockchain deposits and withdrawals, credit card numbers, and more.

To our knowledge, no other company uses a more comprehensive or effective system for fulfilling compliance requirements than Binance.

Cooperation and transparency with law enforcement

Binance is committed to transparency and working with regulators and law enforcement in the U.S. and globally, and the Binance compliance team currently has over 750 people, many of whom have backgrounds in law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

To date, Binance has processed more than 55,000 law enforcement requests and assisted U.S. law enforcement in freezing/seizing more than $125 million in funds in 2022 alone, and $160 million so far in 2023.

Binance will continue to respect and cooperate with regulators in the U.S. and around the world.

Registration and licensing

Binance.com has the highest number of licenses/registrations in the world, currently at 16 and continuing to increase.

trade

Under no circumstances will Binance.com trade for profit or “manipulate” the markets.

There are several situations for Binance's "transactions":

  • Binance's revenue comes from cryptocurrencies.

  • Binance does need to convert cryptocurrencies from time to time to pay for fiat or other cryptocurrencies,

  • Binance has affiliates that provide liquidity for less liquid cryptocurrency pairs, but these affiliates are specifically monitored and cannot make big money with these cryptocurrencies.

Personally, I have two accounts on Binance:

  • One for Binance Card,

  • One for my crypto assets.

I use our own products and store my crypto on Binance.com, and I also need to convert crypto from time to time to pay for my personal expenses or card purchases.

As far as employees are concerned, Binance.com has a 90-day no-day trading rule, which means that Binance employees are not allowed to sell tokens within 90 days of their most recent purchase and vice versa, this is to prevent any employee from actively trading. Binance also prohibits our employees from futures trading.

Additionally, Binance has a strict policy against anyone having access to private information, such as listing details, Launchpad, etc., from buying or selling these tokens.

I strictly abide by these policies and have never participated in Binance Launchpad, Earn, Margin, or Futures. I know that I want to spend my time building a reliable platform to serve Binance users.

At Binance, we seek amicable solutions to all issues, working with regulators and government agencies around the world. While Binance is not perfect, we hold ourselves to high standards, often above those required by existing regulations. Most importantly, Binance believes that users should do the right thing at all times. On the journey to financial freedom, Binance does not expect everything to be smooth sailing, but it does not shy away from challenges either.