In a statement issued today, concerning a top US regulator’s case against it, Binance Holdings notes that the filing is “unexpected and disappointing as we have been working collaboratively with the CFTC for more than two years”.

Nevertheless, the company notes that “we intend to continue to collaborate with regulators in the US and around the world. The best path forward is to protect our users and to collaborate with regulators to develop a clear, thoughtful regulatory regime”.

“We have made significant investments over the past two years to ensure we do not have US users active on our platform. During that period, we went from approximately 100 people in our compliance team to around 750 core and supporting compliance personnel today, including almost 80 personnel with prior law enforcement or regulatory agency experience and approximately 260 personnel with professional certificates in compliance”, Binance adds. 

It is also stressed that the company spent an additional $80,000,000 on external partners, including KYC vendors, transaction monitoring, market surveillance and investigative tools who support its compliance programs. 

Consistent with regulatory expectations globally, Binance notes that it has implemented a robust “three lines of defense” approach to risk and compliance, which includes, but is not limited, to:

- Ensuring mandatory KYC for all users worldwide

- Maintaining country blocks for anyone who is a resident of the US 

- Blocking anyone who is identified as a US citizen regardless of where - they live in the world 

- Blocking for any devices using a US cellular provider

- Blocking log-ins from any US IP address 

- Preventing deposits and withdrawals from US banks for credit cards

The statement follows a top US regulator’s case against Binance Holdings Ltd., which according to Bloomberg, is rattling American firms that officials say worked with the exchange to trade crypto.

Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, stated that upon an initial review, the complaint appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts.

“We do not agree with the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the complaint”, Zhao said.

“At Binance, we look for amicable solutions to all problems. We are collaborative with regulators and government agencies all around the world. While we are not perfect, we hold ourselves to a high standard, often higher than what existing regulations require. And above all, we believe in doing the right thing by our users at all times. In this journey towards freedom of money, we do not expect everything to be easy. We do not shy away from challenges”, he added.