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Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, has denied allegations that it was used to launder at least $2.35 billion in illegal payments.

- According to a Reuters article, Binance has become a "hub for hackers, scammers, and drug traffickers," with strong ties to Hydra, a Russian dark web market.

"What I believe is highly skewed in this study is that every exchange has exposure to dark net markets," Matthew Price, Binance's senior director of investigations and the primary investigator on Hydra when he was at the IRS criminal investigation, told CoinDesk.

"It's something that utterly disregards facts to get a message over," Tigran Gambaryan, the exchange's global chief of intelligence who once served at the IRS' cyber crimes branch, added.

– "The most important aspect of this narrative is simply overlooked. You have no control over deposits; all you have is power over what you may do later." Gambaryan went on to say.

- Binance has a tight mechanism in place, according to Price and Gambaryan, that addresses exposure to fraud, dark net marketplaces, and scams utilizing blockchain analytics tools from Chainalysis and Elliptic.

– "There is an established mechanism in place. We offer risk scores for just about anything you can think of. We have everything internally tagged using our technologies, and then we can use Chainalysis to conduct post-transaction monitoring." Gambaryan made a point.

- Binance released 50 pages of emails between its intelligence team and Reuters, in which it discusses recovering $5.8 million from the Ronin breach and assisting in several fraud investigations.

- The reporter's confusion about "indirect" and "direct" exposure to dark net markets is reiterated in the email discussion.

- According to Chainalysis, 0.15 percent of all cryptocurrency transactions in 2021 were tied to illegal behavior, whereas the United Nations believes that between 2% and 5% of fiat cash is linked to criminal activity.

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