US regulator sues crypto exchange Binance and boss Changpeng Zhao

The complaint alleges that Binance has grown its US business despite publicly stating its intent to block US customers from accessing the platform.

Allegations in the complaint include a claim that even after announcing US restrictions Binance told its most valuable US customers how to avoid its compliance controls.

The CFTC complaint claims Binance has offered and carried out derivatives transactions to US customers since 2019, despite saying that year that it would stop serving people in the US on its main platform. The CTFT claims Binance did not require customers to prove their identity before trading on the platform and failed to implement basic procedures to prevent terrorist financing and money laundering.

It added that Binance told employees to communicate with US customers about evading controls through a messaging app that was set to automatically delete messages. It said Zhao in particular had used the Signal app, set to auto-delete, for communications purposes.

The complaint alleges that Zhao, who founded Binance in 2017 and is worth an estimated $27.9bn according to Bloomberg, played a key role in the misconduct.