As the Binance/FTX war rages on, the largest exchange comes under fire for its operations in Iran. Binance would indeed have authorized transactions from this country, despite the economic sanctions that weigh on the country. And that raises several questions for the ecosystem as a whole.
Binance reportedly processed transactions from Iran
The news was revealed by Chainalysis, which tracked the transactions in question. The data visible on the blockchain indicates that Binance reportedly processed $8 billion in Iran-related transactions since 2018. Capital flows almost all came from Nobitex, Iran’s largest exchange. Notably, the vast majority of funds that passed through were sent in TRX, Tron’s cryptocurrency.
👉 More info about Tron and its cryptocurrency TRX
This is no coincidence. On its site, the Nobitex exchange advised its users to use the TRX to dodge penaltiesjudging that Tron allowed transactions to be carried out without “ jeopardize the assets because of the sanctions“. The amount of financial flows seemed in any case to show that Binance was aware of this “partnership”, and voluntarily facilitated transactions.
Faced with this case, Binance reacted through the voice of its director of the sanctions department. Chagri Poyraz thus explained that the platform was not aware of these movements of funds :
“Earlier this week, we discovered that Binance interacted with some Iran-based links. […] As soon as we discovered this, we proceeded to freeze transfers as well as block accounts.»
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US interference or valid sanctions?
Poyraz also explains that the platform must find the balance between promoting the decentralization of cryptocurrencies, while preventing certain players from accessing its services. In this case, she did not do so for these Iranian transactions, in what she explains was a mistake.
The question that is asked half-wordly is of course that of the interference of the United States in international financial flows. Poyraz evokes it cautiously, explaining:
“Although we are not an American company that must follow the laws of the United Statesas an industry leader we work hard to prevent sanctioned individuals from using our platform.»
A question therefore comes up like a refrain in the ecosystem: should the platforms follow the directives of governments and institutions, while cryptocurrencies were created precisely to exist outside this system ? We won’t answer it, but we can see that Binance itself is struggling to find the balance.
👉 Read also – FTX’s FTT drops 25% in minutes, Binance singled out
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Source: Reuters,Binance
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Journalist at Cryptoast, I fell into the pot of cryptocurrencies a few years ago. I am passionate about the innovative technologies that stem from the blockchain and I like to find the most crispy information to share with you.
Marine Debelloir
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