The world's largest crypto exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao operated a "web of deception" that included artificially inflating its trading volumes and diverting customer assets, the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged on Monday. The commission sued Binance and Mr Zhao for failing to restrict US customers from its platform and misleading investors about its market surveillance controls, as well as for operating an unregistered securities exchange. Binance is also under investigation by the US Justice Department for suspected money laundering and sanctions violations, according to people familiar with the probe. The world's biggest crypto exchange, Binance was founded in Shanghai in 2017 by Mr Zhao, a Canadian citizen born and raised until the age of 12 in China. Binance's global trading platform, Binance.com dominates the crypto trading landscape, last year processing trades worth about $65bn a day with up to 70pc of the market.

Source: Irish Independent June 06, 2023 02:37 UTC