Binance denies allegations of almost $ 2 billion in fraud

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has denied a recently published Forbes report titled " Binance's asset shuffling is eerily similar to FTX’s maneuvers". The journalists studied the online activity of the largest crypto exchange and claimed that Binance transferred $ 1.8 billion of customer funds to several hedge funds.

According to Forbes, between August 17 and early December 2022, Binance «silently» moved $ 1.8 billion «deposited as collateral intended to support its customers' stablecoins, leaving many of its users with unsecured funds.» This happened despite the company’s statement that it had fully audited its reserves. Earlier, Binance assured that it had never touched its customers' deposits.

In response to Forbes' accusations, the crypto exchange denied any wrongdoing. A spokesperson for the company assured that the transactions in question were part of an internal automated settlement system and did not affect users' assets: «Although Binance has previously acknowledged that its wallet management processes for pledging tokens tied to the crypto exchange were not always flawless, this has never affected user deposits.»

Later, Binance spokesperson Patrick Hillman explained that the movement of capital between wallets is normal and that the exchange does not mix its assets with customer funds. He suggested that interested parties check the veracity of their statements in the public records of the blockchain.

Binance has been involved in several compromising situations in the past. One of the most high-profile is the accusations from Сем Бенкман-Фрід" href="https://noworries.media/biography/sem-benkman-frid/" data-bio-id="3697">Sam Bankman-Fried. The ex-head of FTX, who is currently under house arrest pending trial, accused Binance CEO Чанпен Чжао" href="https://noworries.media/biography/chanpen-chzhao/" data-bio-id="3681">Changpeng Zhao of organizing the collapse of his exchange. However, the exchange denied Fried’s claims. Earlier, Binance planned to take over FTX, but the company said that it failed to resolve the problems on the platform. «Initially, we hoped to be able to support FTX users and provide the necessary liquidity. However, the exchange’s problems are beyond our control and we are unable to help,» Binance said in an official statement on Twitter.

Also in January this year, it became known that Binance was a counterparty of the Russian crypto exchange Bitzlato. As FinCEN representatives found out, Binance laundered about $ 346 million in BTC obtained by Bitzlato illegally.