Reuters published an interesting report about the world’s largest crypto platform Binance. According to the report, Binance processed transactions totaling at least $2.35 billion stemming from hacks, investment frauds, and illegal drug sales between 2017 and 2021. Allegedly, in 2019 Binance processed criminal funds totaling $770 million.
With around 120 million users worldwide, Binance processes crypto trades worth hundreds of billions of dollars a month. The crypto giant used its financial power to expand into traditional business, announcing a $200 million investment in media group Forbes this year and committing $500 million to Elon Musk’s bid to take over Twitter. However, a Forbes spokesperson said Binance’s investment would not take place. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Binance declined to make Changpeng Zhao (CZ) available for an interview. Responding to written questions, Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillmann said Binance did not consider Reuters’ calculation to be accurate. He did not respond to requests to provide Binance’s own figures for the cases identified in this article. He said Binance was building “the most sophisticated cyber forensics team on the planet” and was seeking to “further improve our ability to detect illegal crypto activity on our platform.”