Media: Binance gives a ‘surface-level response’ to US senators

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance responded to the US senators’ inquiry but offered little clarification on most questions. Bloomberg reports this.

On March 1, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Roger Marshall demanded that the company provide a detailed report on its operations. In doing so, the lawmakers accused it of ties to criminals and called it a “hotbed of illicit financial activity”.

In a 14-page letter, Binance’s Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillman described the exchange’s policy on compliance with KYC/AML, but touched on finances only marginally. He also stressed that the American unit of the company “is a separate entity — contrary to assumptions in public reports.”

Hillman added that the crypto exchange has a compliance team. It numbers 750 people, including former regulators and law enforcement officials.

“Binance uses both internal tools and tools from well-known third-party providers to monitor transactions and user profiles in real time. For reference, between August 2021 and November 2022, Binance halted more than 54,000 transfers due to monitoring-system alerts,” the letter states.

According to Bloomberg, the company did, after all, hand regulators some data on its finances and users.

Back in March, Binance chief Changpeng Zhao denied accusations by US senators that it laundered funds obtained illegally.