Richard Teng, Chief Executive Officer of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has announced that nearly 355,000 users have been removed from its platform in an effort to maintain compliance and market fairness. Teng made this statement in a post on the Binance website dated May 9.
"We always place users' interest first and take our responsibilities on compliance and maintaining market fairness seriously," said Teng, according to X. "As a testament to that, Binance has offboarded nearly 355,000 users with transaction volume of more than $2.5 trillion over the past 3 years for violating our terms of use."
According to The Wall Street Journal's report on May 9, Binance dismissed an investigator in 2023 who claimed that the company allowed a client to continue using its platform despite their involvement in market manipulation. A spokesperson for Binance refuted these allegations, stating that the investigator was dismissed following an internal investigation which found his claims against the client to be insubstantial. The spokesperson emphasized that Binance operates under "a robust surveillance framework that identifies and takes action against market abuse" and does not show favoritism towards any individual clients.
A press release from the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that Binance had reached a resolution with the U.S. government over historical compliance issues. As part of this agreement, Binance consented to pay $4.3 billion in penalties and permit a third-party monitor access to its transactions and accounts.
In another post, Binance clarified that throughout the investigation and subsequent settlement process, it was not accused by the U.S. government of engaging in any form of market manipulation.
Binance further disclosed that during the resolution process, it was scrutinized by multiple government agencies. According to another post by Binance, this investigation exposed past issues within the company as well as improvements made to rectify those problems. Multiple government agencies commended these enhancements to Binance’s compliance program. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) consent order acknowledged that Binance "remodeled its compliance program governance and organization structure, including by hiring new compliance leadership with professional compliance experience in the financial sector and law enforcement."
Teng assumed his role as CEO after this settlement in November, as per another post. Prior to joining Binance in August 2021, Teng held prominent positions such as CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), Chief Regulatory Officer of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), and Director of Corporate Finance at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
