Binance fined €3.325M for offering services 'without legal registration'

The Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank) stated today that it had fined troubled cryptocurrency exchange Binance €3.325 million.

The Central Bank slapped the multimillion-euro penalties on Binance for providing crypto services in the nation "without registering with DNB as required by law."

According to DNB, the punishment, imposed in April 2022, was calculated using the General Fine Allocation Policy, with the base sum of €2M raised owing to "enhanced severity and responsibility."

DNB stated that it took into account Binance's position as the world's top crypto services provider with a daily trading volume of $13.7BN and a "very substantial" number of customers in the Netherlands.

"Additionally, Binance has had a competitive advantage since it has not paid levies to the DNB and has not incurred any additional expenditures associated with the DNB's continuing supervision," the Central Bank explained.

DNB disclosed that the punishment was doubled since the company's infractions "occurred over a lengthy period of time," from May 2020 to December 2021, and that DNB considered these violations "extremely severe."

Under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act, companies intending to offer crypto services in the Netherlands are required to register with DNB (Wwft).

DNB issued a public warning against Binance in August 2021, stating that it was not in accordance with the WWFT and "illegally offering services for the exchange of virtual and fiat currency."

DNB has stated that it has reduced the punishment by 5 percent owing to Binance's submission of a registration application and the company's "relative transparency" during the entire process.

DNB also cautioned that because Binance offered cryptocurrency services in the Netherlands without DNB registrations, it had "interfered with the aims of the Wwft," which might have resulted in "a considerable number of odd transactions remaining out of sight"

Binance filed an appeal against the fine on June 2, 2022.

By fLEXI tEAM