Page 30 - 期货和衍生品行业监管动态（2023年12月刊）

期货和衍生品行业监管动态

November 21 [See CFTC Press Release No. 8825-23], the court finds Zhao and

Binance violated the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, imposes

a $150 million civil monetary penalty personally against Zhao, and requires Binance to

disgorge $1.35 billion of ill-gotten transaction fees and pay a $1.35 billion penalty to

the CFTC. The order also obligates Zhao and Binance to make certifications as to the

existence, application, and efficacy of Binance’s improved compliance controls, and

permanently enjoins them from further violations as charged. [See CFTC Press Release

No. 8680-23]

Case Background

As previously announced, the order finds Binance, at Zhao’s direction, actively

solicited customers in the United States, including quantitative trading firms, who

entered into digital asset derivative transactions directly on the Binance platform. In

violation of its own Terms of Use, Binance also allowed at least two prime brokers to

open “sub-accounts” that were not subject to Binance’s know your customer (KYC)
procedures and enabled U.S. customers to directly trade on the platform. The order

further finds Zhao and Binance were aware of U.S. regulatory requirements, but chose

to ignore them and knowingly concealed the presence of U.S. customers on the platform.

The order also finds Zhao and other members of Binance’s senior management actively

facilitated violations of U.S. law, including instructing U.S. customers to evade

compliance controls.

In connection with the order, Binance and Zhao have certified that, subsequent to

the filing of the CFTC’s complaint, Binance has offboarded the quantitative trading

firms identified in the CFTC’s complaint as they do not meet Binance’s improved

onboarding criteria. Binance and Zhao also certified that any customer who seeks to

onboard, whether through a primary or “sub account,” must complete all KYC

onboarding procedures. The order requires Binance and Zhao to make additional

certifications, including that Binance will no longer allow existing sub-accounts,

18