Context
Financial regulators across the world have targeted major cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
What is Binance?
- Binance is headed by Changpeng Zhao, a Canadian known as "CZ".
- The exchange offers a wide range of services to users across the globe, from cryptocurrency spot and derivatives trading to loans and non-fungible tokens.
- It also runs a "decentralised" exchange that allows users to trade directly with each other.
- Its own cryptocurrency, Binance Coin, is the third-biggest in the world, with some $68 billion-worth in circulation.
Mapping the Scale
- By some measures, it's the biggest platform in the world. Its trading volumes in July were $455 million, down almost a third from a month earlier amid cooler crypto markets but still No.1 globally, according to data from CryptoCompare.
- Binance also leads crypto derivatives trading, with volumes topping $1.4 trillion in July - a 55 per cent share of the overall market.
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Under Security Lense
- Dutch Central Bank: Binance was not in compliance with the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws.
- US: Binance is also reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service.
- Others: A string of other regulators - including those in Japan, Britain, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong and Malaysia - have also issued warnings against Binance.
