The Australian Securities and Investments Commission conducted searches at multiple Binance Australia locations on July 4, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. The searches are related to Australia’s ongoing probe of Binance’s local derivatives business, which was shut down in April after the ASIC canceled the exchange’s derivatives license.
The ASIC’s probe of Binance Australia’s derivatives operation includes their classification of retail and wholesale clients after the exchange said it had closed the derivatives positions of some Australian users because they were incorrectly designated as wholesale investors. In April, Binance announced that it would shut down their Australian crypto derivatives exchange, but the spot platform has continued to operate.
Binance Global has faced similar accusations in the U.S., where the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused the exchange of providing services to American customers illegally, and in some cases, even coached users on how they could find a workaround to a KYC check. The SEC estimates that in August 2021, only 25 million of the 62 million Binance users from around the world had completed proper KYC.