In recent hours, the Cayman Islands and Thailand restricted the operations of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance on their territory, and even a public body made a complaint in the case of the Asian country. In this way, they join the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia, nations that have taken similar steps in the recent past.
This Thursday, Thailand denounced cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reported in a statement that it filed a criminal lawsuit with the Economic Crime Eradication Division of the Royal Thai Police. According to the entity, the firm had received a warning in April, to which it never issued a response.
For its part, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority reported Thursday, July 1, that both Binance Group and Binance Holdings Limited are not “registered, licensed, regulated or authorized” to operate as a cryptocurrency exchange within or from their jurisdiction. In addition, the entity added that it is studying whether the firm carries out other activities that fit within its regulatory orbit.
Since the company claim that they do not operate a cryptocurrency exchange from the Cayman Islands, but if they own other companies that carry out other activities that are allowed by the laws of the island, according to Decrypt. However, Binance did not specify which ones.
Binance and its regulatory challenges in other countries
In addition to Thailand and Cayman Islands, Singapore is another nation where Binance has suffered regulatory setbacks. As reported by Bloombergon July 1, the Singaporean authorities announced that they would evaluate the permits that the firm has to operate the country, thus continuing the wave of states that are advancing in this direction.
Precisely, one of them was the United Kingdom. As CriptoNoticias reported, last Sunday, June 26, the Financial Conduct Authority banned Binance Markets Limited (BLM) from trading cryptocurrency derivatives, an activity regulated in that territory and for which the exchange does not have authorization. Given this, the company announced that it is willing to collaborate to comply with all relevant standards.
A few days earlier, Japan’s Financial Services Agency issued a warning highlighting that Binance is not registered to operate in the country. To this is also added a notification issued by the Malaysian government in mid-2020 about the unauthorized activities that the exchange carried out in its territory, reports Decrypt.
Binance’s answer
For the moment, Binance Group has been dedicated to making clear its intentions to comply with the laws of each country. As reported by this media on Thursday, July 1, the firm announced the implementation of CipherTrace Traveler, a trade repository that you will share with other exchanges about transactions that are made between platforms.
In this way, companies in this sector will be able to provide public bodies with any operation that is requested for investigative purposes in relation to illicit activities. This is one of the measures that covers the Travel rule recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
On the other hand, there is a history of successful trading that supports Binance’s commitment to collaborate with the State. For example, in late June, the exchange provided information that stopped an international network of hackers laundering money on its platform.
According to the Terms of Use defined on its official site, Binance “reserves the right to choose the markets and jurisdictions in which to conduct its activities, and may restrict or prohibit, at its discretion, the provision of Binance services in certain countries and regions.”
According to data from CoinMarketCap, it is the most widely used exchange globally, with more than 44 million weekly visits and a market volume that, in the last 24 hours at the time of writing this note, exceeded 12,996 million dollars.