Cryptocurrency exchange Binance was still processing Iranians even after US reimposed the sanction regime for Iran in 2018 due to its weak KYC policy, Reuters has found.
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According to the report, after the sanctions were declared, Binance warned its clients from Iran they were no longer able to use the trading platform and had to terminate all trades, but failed to bar those traders.
At least seven Iranians told Reuters in an interview they were still able to access the platform even after the 2018 ban until September 2021, when Binance tightened its anti-money laundering policy amid the global crackdown from regulators.
"There were some alternatives, but none of them were as good as Binance. It didn't need identity verification, so we all used it," said Asal Alizade, a trader in Tehran.
Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, didn't respond to accusations of weak KYC policy directly, but noted that media should not treat users (or readers) "like they are dumb."
This isn't the first time Reuters report about Binance's business. In June, the media said that hackers, scammers, and other bad actors laundered over $2.3 billion through Binance between 2017 and 2021, citing on-chain data provided by Crystal Blockchain, Chainalysis, law enforcement and court documents.
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