Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange Freezes $1M Corporate Account


On August 25, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges Binance confirmed accusations of freezing a major client’s account, with $1 million in it, against the statement that the action followed a law enforcement request.
Tezos tool contributor Baking Bad tweeted that Binance has “blocked” their corporate account containing Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Polgyon (MATIC), Tether (USDT), and other tokens since 1 July without offering any explanations. Binance had also gone on to set the account’s balances to zero, indicated by @TezosBakingBad.
“We have all the materials to begin the investigation and inform the community,” they noted.
Binance has refuted the claims, noting via a statement posted on the exchange’s official Twitter account: “The account in question was restricted as the result of a law enforcement request, which @TezosBakingBad is well aware of, as he was already advised of this multiple times and provided the LE contact form through our support chat system on 7/6, 7/12, and 7/22,”
Baking Bad acknowledges that they hadn’t received any response instead of making contact with Binance support, stating they had for sure “sent about five requests” using the law enforcement form provided. Even as the stated deadline fast approaches, they believe no such request to Binance to freeze the account was made.
Mentioning it doesn't have anything to do with the seizure of funds or lack of contact, Binance said what it has done concerning the matter is “cooperate… the same as any other exchange” would have done.
By asking Baking Bad not to misinform the community and that doing so wouldn’t change anything, Binance added, “There is a process to contest the seizure with the agency should you wish to pursue that path. But that is done through the agency, Binance has zero control over that process.”
Though both Binance and Baking Bad haven’t disclosed the law enforcement in question, there is an indication to Binance EU and EU entities.

Joyashree Dey
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA