What Binance Market ban is about

[paxmao]

(Translated roughly from my post in the Spanish section)

Look, my interpretation is that this (ban) is not about territorial restrictions or using VPNs, this is about preventing systematic money laundering, although I sincerely believe that they are only concerned with the ones destined to finance terrorist activities and marginally and by association, the sale of drugs and oil from sanctioned countries. Do not mistake this for an attack on the average joe that has 4 sats sitting around.

The UK and precisely the City and Canary Warf in London are a gigantic financial centre, particularly if you consider how small is the UK in size and population. Among many other things, "Greater London" - London + its metropolitan area, generates one third of the economic activity of the UK.

A large part of this "success" is due to the Empire, but above all, to the agility with which the UK has managed to become an exceptional receiver of funds from various origings. African dictators, Russian oligarchs, high-class arabs and many other categories that are welcomed with a red carpet and little questioning. Up to there, the government of the UK is happy with all this and its only aim it to keep being the perfect destiny for those investments. Be not mistaken, the Brexit campaigns have not financed by Welsh shepherds, but all the money that wants maximum flexibility and independence from the rules that may come from "Europe".

The problem of all this is when you get a terrorist attack in Paddington Station, at peak commuting hour, and you pull the string to find out that it was financed with money laundered near Bank or Canary Wharf Station. That does hurt, also when George Bush calls you asking why the HSBC is laundering the money used to pay chinesse hackers or why is there a British Bank with large accounts to the name of Mickey Mouse Bin-Laden Pluto.

The financial conduct authority are far from being saints. They are there to see only what is appropriate to see (drug money from Afghanistan bad, drug money from Colombia ok only if it is huge and money from tax evasion in Spain coming through Gibraltar marvellous.

Binance Markets has not been banned for allowing people to buy bitcoin. There is something else there, and it is something that Coinbase has been working around for years. My impression is that Binance cannot copy that overnight because it is not about filling a few forms here and there.

[mu_enrico]

Each country has its own rules and regulations. Binance operation seems not suitable for some countries (of course about KYC and AML), thus those with special interest will ban them, while some just don't care. It's difficult to operate globally, especially if it involves finance. Anyway, this news seems hot just because of the magnitude of the country, i.e., UK. FYI, the Binance domain has been blocked in my country long time ago.

[kryptqnick]

I think it's really unfair that some illegal activities are ignored while others are heavily targeted. Binance has its own reasonable KYC policies, and if the sum of money is big, one will have to provide an ID. So if we're talking about big-scale money laundering, I don't think Binance is the first choice for criminals. Also, instead of outright banning Binance, the UK authorities could've imposed their own rules, such as obligatory KYC for everyone from the UK.  But no, they just banned one of the most reputable exchanges in the world, and the one which actually tries to comply with regulations of various countries and to operate transparently. So it's a sign of hostility towards cryptos, I think. They're okay with fiat being used for illegal activities, but not okay with cryptos being used at all.

[Coyster]

U.K expelling Binance from it's shores is somewhat surprising notwithstanding the reason, be it on the basis on small, medium or large crimes such as money laundering. I mean, centralized exchanges are somewhat regulated by the government as they can give out whichever data the government requires of them, thus if there's any case linking to Binance, an exchange that already has it's users data through KYC, then the government can basically get the information they need out of the exchange.

On the strength of the foregoing, I think the ban is more related to a crackdown/hostility to crypto than for money laundering reasons, just like the situation with the Nigerian government, which for no reason whatsoever, other than trying to hamper the growth of crypto placed a ban on banks processing crypto transactions via exchanges; I think that's the same situation panning out here.

I'm afraid there will be more of this regulations/bans/restrictions, did we even forget the situation in China, it's basically about control and freedom, the government do not like it's citizens controlling anything, not to talk of their funds; Bitcoin and other dex crypto's do the exact opposite, it's only natural the government try to fight it as they've been attempting to do with regulations and then their CBDC's.

[maisao1991]

I found binance only good for some countries they support and when you use and withdraw large amount from this exchange it is very difficult and it has a team that thoroughly checks the funds and they will put you in list of suspects. This doesn't seem like the ideal place for money-laundering offenders to notice

[worle1bm]

Cryptocurrencies are not regulated in UK and so this is say another move to supress the exchange that trade in cryptos.Moreover they have said that they do not comply with AML policy of the country as Binance withdrew its application last month for setting up Binance digital market place in UK and also suspension of card payments for customers which makes another reason for them to take this decision.But if you have to work in regulated environment you have to comply with rules and regulations of the final authority which they didn't so they can't operate them.

[evilgreed]

               The binance ban is only a small part of the bigger picture and no matter how they sugarcoat everything, there is always a deeper meaning or a deeper reason for all of these efforts in pinning down this industry and every person within it. Achieving the desired results of such reasons they always mention including criminal activities are only cherries on top of the big cake that they are baking. The majority of people will always be greedy and selfish, even more when in power and of high position compared to others. While some may differ and stand firm on their morals, it is very rare. Oh well, at least these reasons they spout can somehow make things seem good at least since we can't do anything about their plans anyway.

[verita1]

Thanks, OP for your Post. I was interested in learning about the dispute over why Binance has been banned in the UK. After reading the following articles, my doubts were clarified. There will be a lot of speculation about it but if Binance meets all the requirements he will become accepted into the FCA.

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volumes, was set to launch its own digital asset marketplace in Britain. However, it was one of several crypto firms that withdrew applications to register with the FCA due to not meeting anti-money laundering requirements.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/06/28/cryptocurrency-exchange-binance-banned-by-uk-regulator.html

Just five crypto companies are currently registered with the FCA. Those include Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss ’Gemini and British start-up Ziglu. There are dozens of applicants sitting on the Temporary Registration Regime list.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/03/many-crypto-firms-not-meeting-money-laundering-rules-uks-fca-warns.html

The Binance Group acquired BML May 2020 and has not yet launched its UK business or used its FCA regulatory permissions.

For questions related to BML, please contact compliance@binance.uk. (2/4)

https://twitter.com/binance/status/1409229417415680008?s=19

As we can see, Binance has always shown transparency in each process that we do not have to worry about.

[dothebeats]

It's understandable since every country has its right to block services on their own respective jurisdictions unless and until these services comply to their laws. It's not really new, to be honest, though the issue tends to get big as the question of legality is already involved. Then again, there isn't a one-size-fits-all legal status for a company if it wants to service the whole world. Binance just doesn't really care on the local laws of some countries that ban them for as long as they still get a fair share of the world's market, they are still business as usual.

Whether Binance complies to the local laws, regulations, and rules mandated by UK is still up to anyone's guess as of now.

[adzino]

Cryptocurrencies are not regulated in UK and so this is say another move to supress the exchange that trade in cryptos.Moreover they have said that they do not comply with AML policy of the country as Binance withdrew its application last month for setting up Binance digital market place in UK and also suspension of card payments for customers which makes another reason for them to take this decision.But if you have to work in regulated environment you have to comply with rules and regulations of the final authority which they didn't so they can't operate them.

I don't think UK has anything to do with crypto currencies. Yeah, it is not regulated, so cryptos are not their headache. But Binance does deal with fiat currency, right? This is where the problem is. I doubt they would have banned binance if binance didn't support fiat currencies. Each country has their own rules and regulations. They follow their own AML policies. So if binance can't comply with the UK standards, then they will have to go. I am guessing we will be seeing binance.uk soon.

[AmoreJaz]

It's understandable since every country has its right to block services on their own respective jurisdictions unless and until these services comply to their laws. It's not really new, to be honest, though the issue tends to get big as the question of legality is already involved. Then again, there isn't a one-size-fits-all legal status for a company if it wants to service the whole world. Binance just doesn't really care on the local laws of some countries that ban them for as long as they still get a fair share of the world's market, they are still business as usual.

Whether Binance complies to the local laws, regulations, and rules mandated by UK is still up to anyone's guess as of now.

if Binance will see a good opportunity on this market, i guess, they will follow and submit to protocols of UK. just remember, they are at the top of their business for some reasons.
also take this for example, Binance listed SHIB because they see good opportunity to get their market share even if we all know that this meme token has no use case and it is not backed by strong development.
and also, remember the sushi case , they also listed it because of the traffic.
this is why i think once binance sees their opportunity in UK, they will pretty comply the protocols involved just to get in this market.

[just_Alice]

Absolutely! That's somewhat hypocritic and we see the double standards here. Banning the Binance because it's not part of the FCA under a pretext of not meeting requirements regarding money laundering, while it happens over and over in the country.

But the good thing here is that it's all fixable, unlike in countries with dictatorship, where ban means ban probably forever. All Binance needs to do is to improve this part and when all requirements are met the UK will have to revoke the ban.
And people still can trade in the UK on Binance, so it's not that big of a problem, at least for the crypto users.

[magneto]

Look, I doubt there is actually anything particularly remarkable about the ban.

The fact of the matter is that Binance, with its current business model at the very least, were always going to be restricted from doing business in certain countries as a matter of time. No country would willingly allow some semi-regulated exchange to be operating in their jurisdiction, pay little to no taxes to their country, and whilst offering virtually annoymous accounts.

AML/KYC is definitely one consideration in that regard, but it's also probably to serve as a warning to others trying to enter the market just as Binance did.

[Lorence.xD]

Each country has its own rules and regulations. Binance operation seems not suitable for some countries (of course about KYC and AML), thus those with special interest will ban them, while some just don't care. It's difficult to operate globally, especially if it involves finance. Anyway, this news seems hot just because of the magnitude of the country, i.e., UK. FYI, the Binance domain has been blocked in my country long time ago.

I think that even though there are some difference in each country's policy, would there be some general that every country should follow in terms of protecting the international companies? Also, I think that Binance could pretty much prevent this kind of thing if they try and lobby with this government from each country, they make billions so it's not like they won't have any worries about this plus not all lobbying needs money to do so.

[rat03gopoh]

So if we're talking about big-scale money laundering, I don't think Binance is the first choice for criminals.

Not knowing how many and how big money laundering cases are in the UK, the few that are published doesn't mean there aren't any which may actually be difficult to uncover. Given the good liquidity of binance and the withdrawal requirement of 2 BTC per day for 1 account, it is impossible for criminals to ignore this opportunity.

Also, instead of outright banning Binance, the UK authorities could've imposed their own rules, such as obligatory KYC for everyone from the UK. But no, they just banned one of the most reputable exchanges in the world, and the one which actually tries to comply with regulations of various countries and to operate transparently..

Binance has always been a good mirror for platforms of its kind because it is the one that best meets global legal requirements in the view of many. You should also keep in mind that binance recently launched the NFT marketplace right in June, the AFC issued a ban in June (cmiiw). You can certainly see the connection. I got a lot of rumors that NFT products are good "tools" for laundering money.

[Obito]

So if we're talking about big-scale money laundering, I don't think Binance is the first choice for criminals.

Haven't you heard of money mules and smurfs? The money launderers will be able to use it's concept on money laundering through Binance, for those who don't know about the two, they are basically people hired by money launderers to deposit money to a bank in a given amount that doesn't need declaration or would raise suspicions. They can do it with Binance too.

[Kittygalore]

               The binance ban is only a small part of the bigger picture and no matter how they sugarcoat everything, there is always a deeper meaning or a deeper reason for all of these efforts in pinning down this industry and every person within it. Achieving the desired results of such reasons they always mention including criminal activities are only cherries on top of the big cake that they are baking. The majority of people will always be greedy and selfish, even more when in power and of high position compared to others. While some may differ and stand firm on their morals, it is very rare. Oh well, at least these reasons they spout can somehow make things seem good at least since we can't do anything about their plans anyway.

Of course there is if you try to look for it, that's how religion is, finding meaning where there's none. Maybe Thailand really want Binance to pay for their infractions in their soil that's why they do this ban or maybe I am wrong and you are right that there's a deeper reason but who knows, we will never know u til everything surfaces.

[amishmanish]

UK has been hot with crypto news for sometime. First they went after Cobra and bitcoin.org prompting removal of whitepaper and the bitcoin client from the website. Now it seems that users in UK cannot even access bitcoin.org

Then this ban on Binance. OP is right that UK is currently built on its financial infrastructure and being the gatekeeper to transactions and investments valued in trillions. All of this action against crypto, especially the easy walkover that the court seems to be giving the scammer CSW, suggests that there is definitely something more than meets the eye.

This is subtle beginnings to the attempts to make it sound like accessing bitcoin or crypto in general is somehow illegal. It is surprising that there has been such small pushback against the ruling in Cobra's case.

[Sterbens]

It's difficult to operate globally, especially if it involves finance. Anyway, this news seems hot just because of the magnitude of the country, i.e., UK. FYI, the Binance domain has been blocked in my country long time ago.

Yes it is true of the binance domain every year it changes to avoid blocking. Immediately after at that time, there were still many people who kept VPN, and there were also those who downloaded the Binance application on the PlayStore. But the value when in a country he has several Crypto exchanges that feel removed when Binance's presence. With all business ways is business, and they will get rid of it.

[jaysabi]

I think it's really unfair that some illegal activities are ignored while others are heavily targeted. Binance has its own reasonable KYC policies, and if the sum of money is big, one will have to provide an ID. So if we're talking about big-scale money laundering, I don't think Binance is the first choice for criminals. Also, instead of outright banning Binance, the UK authorities could've imposed their own rules, such as obligatory KYC for everyone from the UK.  But no, they just banned one of the most reputable exchanges in the world, and the one which actually tries to comply with regulations of various countries and to operate transparently. So it's a sign of hostility towards cryptos, I think. They're okay with fiat being used for illegal activities, but not okay with cryptos being used at all.

They banned it because it wasn't abiding by the laws.  If binance gets its act together and abides by the financial regulatory laws that already exist, it would be granted a license to operate in the UK.  However my understanding is that this is a company that keeps redomiciling specifically to avoid regulatory oversight, and so they don't appear to be trustworthy.

Also, no, "they" are not okay with fiat being used for illegal activities, which is why there's laws against that and prosecutions.