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As U.S. regulators continue to sniff around Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange is prepared to pay monetary penalties to “make amends” for past regulatory violations, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Binance Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann told The Journal on Wednesday that the exchange grew quickly and was not initially aware of the myriad laws and regulations designed to prevent money laundering, sanctions evasion, and corruption.
Because of what happened, Hillman said BINANCE looks forward to fines – and "work with regulators to determine what remedial action we need to take now to rectify [past violations]."
Though regulatory scrutiny on Binance has intensified following its rival FTX’s collapse last November, Binance has been under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington since at least 2018, according to Reuters. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly sent at least two trading firms subpoenas in recent months, requesting records of their past dealings with Binance US.
Reuters reported in December that federal authorities were still discussing a potential settlement with Binance and assessing whether the evidence they have already collected is sufficient to bring charges against the exchange and several individuals, including CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao.
In her conversation with the newspaper, Mr. Hillman stated that he expected the result of the investigation (he did not name the specific investigation to which he was referring) to be "likely" a fine, might be more... we simply don't know. That is for regulators to decide.”
Hillman declined to estimate the size of the fines or a timeline for when the investigation might be settled, the Journal reported.
However, he added that he was "very confident and really comfortable with the direction of the discussions.”
"This will be a good time for our business because it lets us put this behind us," the Journal quoted Hillman saying.
