This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself.” “I made mistakes, and I must take responsibilities. But I know it is the right thing to do,” Zhao said. “Admittedly, it was not easy to let go emotionally. Just as authorities announced the settlement, Zhao confirmed in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he has stepped down as CEO. US officials say Binance allowed more than 100,000 transactions involving illicit activity as well as more than 1.5 million virtual currency trades that violated US sanctions, including sanctions on Iran, Syria and Cuba. “The Binance platform was facilitating some truly horrible stuff – everything from terrorist financing to ransomware actions, child pornography and various scams and frauds,” a senior Treasury official told reporters.

Treasury described the Binance settlement as its largest enforcement in history. The Binance guilty plea is part of a coordinated settlement reached with a wide range of government agencies, including the Justice Department, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “Its willful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals and child abusers through its platform.” “Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profits,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. The proposed consent order also requires Binance to disgorge $1.35 billion of ill-gotten gains and pay a $1.35 billion civil monetary penalty to the CFTC. In addition to the criminal fine, Zhao will pay $150 million in civil penalties, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Sentencing is ultimately decided by a judge.Īccording to the plea deal, Zhao agreed to prosecutors’ recommendation that he pay a fine of $50 million. Federal guidelines likely place the high end of a possible sentence for Zhao around 18 months. Zhao faces a maximum of 10 years behind bars, though his ultimate sentence will likely be far lower. “Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed – now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in US history,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. US authorities hope the guilty plea from Binance and its founder, on top of the recent conviction of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, will send a clear message to bad actors across the crypto industry.

Zhao, who has amassed a fortune estimated at more than $23 billion, pled guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. US officials described this as the biggest-ever corporate resolution that includes criminal charges for an executive.įollowing a years-long investigation, authorities allege Binance allowed bad actors to freely transact on the platform, enabling everything from child sex abuse and narcotics to terrorist financing for ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades. Zhao, one of the most powerful figures in crypto, has agreed to step down as CEO from the exchange that he founded, and he will pay $200 million in fines.īinance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, admitted to engaging in anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations. Billionaire Changpeng Zhao and leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal charges in a watershed moment designed to bring order to the often-lawless crypto industry.Īs part of a coordinated settlement across the federal government, Binance has agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines and other penalties.

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