Dutch Central Bank Issues €3.3M Fine to Binance
- De Netherlandsche Bank (DNB) noted it had applied a bigger penalty to Binance due to its prolonged violations, from May 2020 to December 2021.
- Binance has now submitted its registration application with DNB, and will soon comply with the bank’s Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. CoinDesk
Popular crypto exchange Binance has received a fine of €3.3 million in the Netherlands for providing services to Dutch citizens without the required registrations, the Dutch central bank said in a press release on 18 July.
According to the announcement, De Netherlandsche Bank (DNB) issued the administrative fine back in April 2022, noting that Binance had been operating in the area illegally. Under DNB’s rules, any company that wishes to provide crypto services in the Netherlands has to first comply with the central bank’s Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act, something Binance has yet to complete.
DNB pointed out that it had issued a public warning to Binance in August 2021, which contributed to the increase in the fine. Another factor to the bigger penalty was Binance’s trading volumes, with DNB noting the exchange had a “very large number of customers in the Netherlands” who contributed to its daily trading volumes of $13.7 billion.
According to the central bank, Binance’s violations occurred between May 2020 — when DNB introduced its registration policy — and December 2021, the month DNB closed its investigation. The bank, however, reduced the total amount of the fine by 5% as the exchange has now moved to comply with the law and submitted its application.
The popular crypto exchange has been doing its best to register with regulators around the world since the start of the year. It was able to acquire a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in Spain and France this month alone. Previously it had obtained a money transmitter license in Puerto Rico, operating license in Dubai, and a VASP license in Bahrain.
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- The DoJ said the claim was irrelevant as SBF was charged for violating existing laws for misappropriating customer assets.
Former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried leaves the Federal Court in New York after pleading not guilty, 3 January, 2022.
lev radin/Shutterstock
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- Although no reason was given for the decision, the company noted that “less than 1% of users” in those regions will be affected by the change.