The US Department of Justice has requested three years in prison for the founder and former head of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Reuters reports. This became known during the court hearing on April 23.
Subscribe to RB.RU on Telegram
US authorities believe that the verdict should be a signal to the entire crypto industry.
Prosecutors allege in a statement that Binance failed to prevent the use of its platform for money laundering and “failed to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions,” including those related to the Hamas group.
US Justice Department charges of money laundering and sanctions violations led to a $4.3 billion fine and Zhao’s resignation as the site’s director.
Zhao himself is awaiting sentencing on individual charges; The trial will take place on April 30. He reportedly agreed to pay a $50 million fine.
Analytics platform Kaiko estimates Binance’s share of global Bitcoin trading volume at 55.3%, a figure that has fallen to that figure over the past year from 81.3%.
While Binance deals with the fallout from the courts, competitors such as Bybit and OKX are expanding their presence in Asia and other regions.
Author:
Anastasia Marina
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
