NEW YORK-- The world's biggest crypto exchange Binance and its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao were sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday for operating what the regulator alleged were an "illegal" exchange and a "sham" compliance programme.
The CFTC sued Binance, Zhao and its former top compliance executive with "willful evasion" of U.S. law, "while engaging in a calculated strategy of regulatory arbitrage to their commercial benefit."
The regulator's lawsuit comes amid a broader and increasingly high-profile crackdown on crypto companies. For years, U.S. prosecutors and civil investigators have targeted crypto firms for illegal offerings and failures to comply with rules designed to prevent illicit activity. But the pace of such government activity has surged recently.
The CFTC said in its complaint on Monday that from at least July 2019 to the present, Binance "offered and executed commodity derivatives transactions on behalf of U.S. persons," in violation of U.S. laws.
Binance's compliance programme has been "ineffective" and the firm, under the direction of Zhao, told employees and customers to circumvent compliance controls, the CFTC said, citing a number of practices first reported by Reuters in a series of investigations into the exchange last year.
The CFTC also accused Binance's former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim of "aiding and abetting" Binance's violations. Lim did not immediately respond to calls and messages from Reuters.
A spokesperson for Binance, which dominates the global digital asset sector, said the firm will continue to "collaborate" with regulators despite the lawsuit being "unexpected and disappointing."
Binance has made "significant investments" to ensure it does not have U.S. users on its platform, the spokesperson said.
CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam said in a statement that Binance executives knew for years "they were violating CFTC rules, working actively to both keep the money flowing and avoid compliance."
The CFTC is responsible for oversight of commodities and derivatives markets, including for Bitcoin. Firms such as brokers that facilitate U.S. customers' trading of such products are required to be registered with the agency.
Reuters reported in December that the U.S. Justice Department had been investigating Binance since 2018 for possible money-laundering and sanctions violations. Binance has processed at least $10 billion in payments for criminals and companies seeking to evade U.S. sanctions, Reuters has found.
Binance's cryptocurrency BNB, the world's fourth largest by market size, dropped around 4% on the news.
Zhao, a billionaire who was born in China and moved to Canada at the age of 12, has not yet directly addressed the CFTC's allegations. In a tweet on Monday afternoon, he wrote "4" - a reference to a previous post listing his "Do's and Don'ts" for 2023. The fourth item on the list was "Ignore FUD, fake news, attacks," using an acronym for "fear, uncertainty and doubt" often used in crypto in relation to news perceived as negative.
Founded in Shanghai in 2017, Binance sits at the heart of the global crypto industry. Its core Binance.com exchange processed trades worth about $23 trillion last year, according to data provider CryptoCompare. Trading volumes hit $34 trillion in 2021, Zhao said last year.
With a holding company based in the Cayman Islands, Binance has never revealed the location of its core exchange. The CFTC charged the holding company and two other Binance units. Binance did not require customers to submit information verifying their identity before trading and "failed to implement basic compliance procedures designed to prevent and detect terrorist financing and money laundering," the CFTC said.
