Another Monday, and another hot crypto story unfurling. A new U.S. Department of Justice probe accuses Binance of violating sanctions against Iran, by allowing ~$1B in crypto transactions to Iranian-based businesses. The probe also saw some irregularities in Binance’s compliance program. The investigation is primarily centered around U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions. The interesting part is it is understood the DOJ has enough evidence to put criminal charges against some Binance executives, including CZ. However, another section of the DOJ wants to do a review of the evidence before handing out charges. CZ has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.

This is another bad situation for the crypto world. Although this is not an FTX-level implosion situation, but if the charges do go through and there is proof of sanction violations, it will become another red mark on the crypto industry, and gives naysayers even more reason to call crypto a vehicle for crime, terrorism, etc.

As I mentioned before, centralized services have come to a point where they cannot be trusted for so many reasons. Violating sanctions might not hurt users directly, but if there was ever a chance to funds to get locked up while investigations happen, this might be it. If you’re reading this and still have quite a bit of money in any centralized services, and are not actively trading it (ex. just bought some ETH and sitting on it), please self-custody! Don’t get to the point of regret as so many others have experienced this year!

Written by: nikethereum.eth / Medium / Mirror