Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reached a settlement agreement with U.S. authorities, resulting in over $4.3 billion in payments, including a $1.8 billion criminal fine and a forfeiture of $2.5 billion. This comes after its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to federal charges. The settlement also encompasses credits of about $1.6 billion from settlements with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as part of the forfeiture amount.
In recent financial movements, Binance transferred a substantial amount of stablecoins on Wednesday, moving $3.9 billion in stablecoins from one wallet named 'Binance-Cold 2' to another dubbed 'Binance 3'. Following this transaction, 'Binance-Cold 2' holds assets worth $6.6 billion. The 'Binance 3' wallet now contains assets totaling $3.6 billion, primarily in USDT (Tether), which is one of the most widely used stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market.
The 'Binance 3' wallet was established in August 2022 and has since been involved in a relatively small number of transactions, with only 338 recorded to date. Tether has disclosed that the total global issuance of USDT stands at roughly 88.3 billion, with significant issuances on blockchain networks such as Tron (46.8 billion) and Ethereum (40 billion).
This settlement and the internal restructuring of Binance's asset holdings follow a period of intense scrutiny on cryptocurrency exchanges and their compliance with international regulations. Binance's legal agreement with U.S. regulatory bodies marks one of the largest settlements in the digital currency space to date.
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