Binance joins global sanctions organization amid heightened compliance scrutiny

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, is making a new public effort to show it's taking compliance in the crypto market seriously.

On Friday, the company announced it will join the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS) to enhance the expertise of its international compliance team.

“By working closely with the ACSS, we will take our sanctions compliance standards to a level that is recognized by a reputable industry association and provide upskilling opportunities for our compliance team,” Binance's Global Head of Sanctions, Chagri Poyraz, said in the release.

"At the end of the day, we want to continue setting the industry standard for security and compliance alongside other industry players," Poyraz added.

This news comes after a report from Reuters last month which cited sources saying, "at least half a dozen U.S. prosecutors" believe an investigation into the exchange has surfaced evidence justifying criminal charges. Reuters also reported some officials have discussed possible plea deals with Binance attorneys.

Binance denied the report on Twitter, saying: "Reuters has it wrong again" in response to its December report.

In August of 2021, Binance made the decision to no longer allow customers to open accounts using only an email address. However, the company made headlines earlier in the year when it was able to recover stolen funds from North Korean hackers in April.

In December, Binance released a "proof of reserves" report that caused controversy within the cryptocurrency community for only disclosing information about the company's bitcoin assets. This led to the accounting firm Mazars, the company responsible for the report, suspending all work with cryptocurrency firms, including Binance.

Binance.US, a separate legal entity from Binance which has a licensing agreement and is majority owned by Zhao, has also faced scrutiny for potentially violating sanctions.