The exchange was accused of illegal trading in digital assets.
The Central Bank of the Netherlands (DNB) imposed a fine on Binance Holdings Ltd. in the amount of € 3.325 million, according to the regulator's website. The exchange is accused of illegally providing cryptocurrency services on the territory of the country without passing mandatory registration with the Central Bank.
Companies offering products and services related to digital assets are required to register with the Central Bank of the Netherlands, according to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (Wwft). The regulator notes that in August 2021 it already published a public warning regarding the Binance platform.
The decision was made at the end of April this year, but it is only now covered. The report also says that in early June, Binance protested the imposition of a fine, but submitted an application for registration to the Central Bank of the Netherlands for consideration.
The base penalty rate is €2 million, but Binance was imposed an increased fine. When assigning the payout amount, the Central Bank took into account that Binance is a major supplier of cryptocurrency products with a daily trading volume of $13.7 billion, and that Binance has a very large number of customers in the Netherlands. In addition, the exchange does not pay any fees to the bank and does not bear the costs associated with constant supervision by DNB.
Another important reason for the increase in the base rate, the Central Bank called the fact that the exchange violated the law for a long period of time: from May 21, 2020 (the date of the introduction of the registration obligation) to December 1, 2021 (the date of the end of the DNB investigation) at least.
In early June, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation into possible violations of the American securities law at the time of the initial sale of its own Binance Coin tokens in 2017.
