Binance CEO dismisses CFTC investigation claims by Bloomberg

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been at the center of several controversies, and the latest comes following a Bloomberg report on Friday that claimed the cryptocurrency exchange might be under investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Supposedly, Binance allowed US residents to place unlawful trades.

However, shortly after the report, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao asserted via a live AMA on Clubhouse that the report had “no teeth.” He said:

“This is a topic that just came up, literally like a few minutes ago or an hour ago. So number one, the news article said there was no, I don’t have it in front of me, there was no “misconduct,” I have to dig it up. So number one there was no report of misconduct from Binance, so the report kind of defeated itself.”

Zhao continued that Binance maintains a  “no comment” policy on communications with regulators, this puts the exchange in a tough spot when it comes to dismissing the report, which has cited a single anonymous source.

The CEO continued to explain that an investigation doesn’t always mean that the CFTC is trying to charge us, trying to do something with us,” and that the report could just be a routine communication.

He noted that these occurrences are nothing new for the company, and similar “miscommunications” have happened in the past and that the “story doesn’t have any teeth.” He also alleged that some “self-perceived competitors” could have bribed or forced journalists to publish reports of this sort that only focus on allegations and are thin on content.

Who’s to blame?

The allegations aren’t much of a surprise because last November, Zhao had admitted that “intelligent” US traders were bypassing the ban placed by US regulators. This came after a Forbes report alleged that Binance Holdings Limited had devised a major plan to deceive the regulators in the US and avoid regulatory scrutiny while continuing to profit from the US market.

Earlier today, Zhao also defended Binance’s KYC/AML policies, stating:

“I can comment publicly that Binance probably has the strongest KYC/AML program in the industry,” he said. “[…] We do very careful, very strict KYC/AML. We also use very intelligent geofencing.”

But, he yet again noted that their geo-blocking system must be “improve” as several US residents have been bypassing it to trade unlawfully.

He concluded by stating that he envisions a future where regulators and industry participants find a common ground.

“Right now there’s kind of a gap between the industry players and the regulators. I want to see, hopefully, both sides extend their hand and bridge that gap.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Chain.