Being a popular cryptocurrency exchange comes at a cost and for Binance, one of the leading digital assets exchanges, it’s the number of users and supported assets that exemplify its challenges.
Its quest to become the most scalable exchange also meant that it allowed a few (or maybe a lot) of nefarious users to sign up to its website. A recent report by Reg-tech firm Coinfirm classified Binance as a high-risk exchange in terms of regulatory compliance. This is due to its portfolio of high-risk assets supported on the platform including privacy-centric altcoins.
Over the better part of the beginning of 2018, several pump and dump (PnD) schemes took advantage of Binance’s lax regularity listing procedures to conduct their businesses (of swindling unknowing investors). It was around this time in March of 2018 that Bloomberg criticized the exchange’s KYC procedures terming them as the “least rigorous.”
However, Binance has been on a mission to correct that reputation. Over the past two months, the exchange has partnered with leading blockchain analytics companies to ensure that its AML (anti-money laundering) and KYC (know your customer) procedures are up to snuff. Previously the exchange announced its partnerships with CipherTrace to bolster its AML policies and IdentityMind to ensure that the KYC procedures are satisfactory to regulators across the world.
In a recent development, Binance has also partnered with another blockchain analytics firm Elliptic to add on to its AML arsenal. A press release by Elliptic published on May 2nd states that Binance has chosen Elliptic in order to “reinforce the exchange’s compliance and security capabilities.”
Binance’s Chief Officer in charge of compliance Samuel Lim expressed his praise for the services offered by Elliptic.
He said that “This new partnership with Elliptic enhances our industry-leading AML compliance programme, world-class security systems and supports our rapid growth into new jurisdictions. Both the breadth and depth of Elliptic’s capabilities and experience speak for themselves. We are pleased to be working with them to combat money laundering together and further promote the freedom of money.”
Similar to CipherTrace, Elliptic offers software solutions that enable its clients to monitor their customers’ transactions through their platforms. It offers services to cryptocurrency exchanges, brokers, banks and other financial institutions across the world that seek to identify and prevent illicit transactions conducted by their clients.
“It’s a privilege to partner with Binance to provide them with access to our advanced transaction monitoring system,” said James Smith, co-founder, and CEO of Elliptic.
Binance is making a serious commitment to delivering trusted services, and this collaboration marks another step in ensuring that the cryptocurrency industry is more secure with fast-developing technology.”
