“U.S. Exerts Pressure on Binance: Demanding Increased Customer Information and Enhanced Listing Transparency”

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is reportedly requesting major brokers such as FalconX and Hidden Road to implement stricter scrutiny to exclude US investors from trading on its platform. This comes after Binance reached a settlement agreement with US authorities last year, admitting to violating US anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations and agreeing to pay a $4.3 billion fine. According to Bloomberg, Binance has been requesting more information from institutional traders, including office addresses and the location of employees and founders. It has also asked interviewees to sign certificates to confirm the accuracy of their responses. The US Department of Justice previously criticized Binance for calling US VIP clients and encouraging them to provide information indicating that they are not in the US. However, under regulatory pressure, Binance now needs to provide more transparency and tighten requirements for listing new tokens. Despite the hefty fine imposed on Binance in the US, data from CCData shows that its market share in global spot cryptocurrency trading volume dropped from nearly 60% to around 30% last year but has since rebounded to 40%. The price of BNB has also risen by about 80% this year, surpassing the increase in Bitcoin. Justin d’Anethan, Head of Asia Business Development at market maker Keyrock, described Binance as a large global bank and suggested that banks may pay fines for similar mistakes but tighten their operations and continue moving forward.