Binance fined by Canadian financial regulator over AML violations

■FINTRAC, the financial regulator for Canada, has fined the largest crypto exchange for violating institutional laws.

■The regulator claims Binance refused to register as a foreign monetary service business.

■BNB trades flat alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Canada's financial regulation body, the Financial Transactions and Reports  Analysis Centre (FINTRAC), has fined Binance for refusing to abide by the status quo for all foreign monetary bodies in the country, according to a report on May 9.

Binance fined $4.4 million

FINTRAC announced that it penalized Binance and all its company extensions for failing to register their businesses and violating Anti-money laundering laws.

The fine imposed on Binance is CAD 6 million (~$4.4 million), based on two law violations found during a compliance activity in 2023.

The financial regulator claims that Binance refused to register as a foreign monetary service business (FMSB) center. According to the announcement, FINTRAC had also provided several opportunities for Binance to register as an FMSB, yet the exchange failed to comply.

The second violation was a failure from the exchange to "report a large virtual currency transaction of $10,000 or more in the course of a single transaction, together with prescribed information".

Binance has also recently faced criticism on Thursday following a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) stating that the exchange has been engaging in market manipulation with market maker DWF.

Following the announcement, BNB's price dropped from $603 to $592 within three hours before seeing a correction to $596. BNB is trading somewhat flat — up 1.6% on the day — alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have yet to record impressive gains.

On the other hand, layer one blockchain networks like Solana (SOL) and Toncoin (TON) have seen gains of 6.4% and 11.9% in their native tokens, respectively.