Binance withdraws $850M before CFTC’s indictment

Immediately before the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accused crypto exchange Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, of regulatory infractions, over a billion dollars in crypto purportedly departed the platform’s wallets. According to Thanefield Capital’s data analysis, significant money was taken a few hours before the Binance CFTC indictment, which happened on Monday, March 27 at 3:00 p.m. UTC.

In the twelve hours preceding the indictment, platforms such as Binance, Kraken, Coinbase, and Bitfinex saw the departure of nearly $1.5 billion. $850 million, or more than half, was removed from Binance.

Within an hour of the announcement, an additional $240 million was withdrawn from Binance. In the past 24 hours, more than $400 million was withdrawn from Ethereum-based funds, according to data from Nansen.

Nonetheless, Binance still has cryptocurrency assets worth $63.36 billion, including nearly $2 billion of Tether, $17 billion of Bitcoin, and $8.1 billion of Ether. The CFTC filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Binance and Zhao.

The CFTC, which has been investigating the business activities of Binance since 2021, asserts that the firm did not comply with its regulatory obligations by registering wrongly with the derivatives regulator. This is the charge that has been brought forth by the CFTC.

Beginning at least in 2019, it has been claimed that Binance engaged in financial activities for consumers in the United States that included the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin.

It has been investigated by the CFTC, the Internal Revenue Service, and federal prosecutors to determine whether or not the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world conforms with anti-money laundering rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into whether Binance provided access to unregistered securities to U.S. traders.

Zhao has previously dismissed the CFTC’s charges, stating that the cryptocurrency exchange “under no circumstances trades for profit or manipulates the market.”