Binance coin (BNB), the world’s largest crypto exchange’s native token, has extended losses as increased regulatory scrutiny and media investigations have once again brought the exchange into the spotlight – albeit not in a favourable light.
BNB is trading at USD 282.7 at 7:10 UTC on Tuesday morning, down 9.1 percent in the last 24 hours. According to CoinGecko, the coin has down 12.2 percent in the last week and is approximately 60% lower than its all-time high of USD 686 set in May 2021.
Notably, the entire crypto market is down today, with BNB being one of the worst-affected coins among the top 100 by market value.
Meanwhile, the coin has extended its losses on news that US officials are looking into whether Binance breached securities laws by selling digital tokens during an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017.
According to the article, Binance is “under investigation in Washington” and the SEC is investigating into market-making entities linked to CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ).
- “The SEC has expressed interest in Zhao’s ownership stakes of market makers on and whether the exchange has conducted broker-dealer activities,” Bloomberg reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the review.
“It would not be acceptable for us to comment on our continuing interactions with regulators, which include education, assistance, and voluntary responses to information demands,” Binance allegedly stated in a statement.
To make matters worse for Binance, Reuters has published a “special investigation” accusing the cryptocurrency exchange of laundering at least USD 2.3 billion in criminal assets between 2017 and 2021.
Reuters said that Binance processed transactions from hacks, frauds, and illegal drug sales for five years, alleging that it cooperated with blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Crystal Blockchain to track funds, as well as scrutinizing court records and police statements.
Binance responded to the allegations by sharing an email exchange with Reuters reporters, saying the report is “rife with falsehoods” and based on bad data.
- “We highly suggest you ignore those authors and pundits who cherry pick data, rely on conveniently unverifiable “leaks” from regulators, and feed into the cult of crypto paranoia for fame or financial gain,” Binance said.
BUILD debunks FUD.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 6, 2022
This is 50+ pages of email records between our cyber security team (ex-law enforcement background) and the cherry picking, misleading, and time wasting journalists.
If you have time to waste, see the details and truth for yourself.https://t.co/Y8bAvS5edk
