DoJ and IRS reportedly investigating crypto exchange Binance

[midian182]

In a nutshell: Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is under investigation by Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice agents who deal with money laundering and tax offenses.

Binance, incorporated in the Cayman Islands and with an office in Singapore, has become the largest and best-known crypto exchange since its founding in 2017. Bloomberg writes that the IRS and DoJ are now taking an interest in potentially illegal transactions moving through the service, though they haven't accused Binance of doing anything wrong.

The investigation isn't too surprising, given that forensics firm Chainalysis Inc. found that more funds linked to criminal activity went through Binance in 2019 than any other crypto exchange— $756 million out of a $2.8 billion total.

Crypto’s mostly anonymous nature has seen it become the currency of choice for illegal activities such as drug deals and blackmail. The skyrocketing price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many others has brought another problem for authorities: traders not paying taxes on the millions they make.

It was reported back in March that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was investigating whether Binance was allowing Americans to make illegal trades on the platform, by letting them buy derivatives linked to digital tokens. US residents are barred from purchasing such products from firms not registered with the CFTC.

“We have worked hard to build a robust compliance program that incorporates anti-money laundering principles and tools used by financial institutions to detect and address suspicious activity,” a Binance spokesperson said. “We have a strong track record of assisting law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States.”

Bitcoin lost around 17% of its value earlier this week after Elon Musk said Tesla would suspend customers’ ability to pay for its products using the crypto. It has rallied slightly to $50,000 since then, but that’s still $10,000 lower than its price on Monday.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/89681-doj-irs-reportedly-investigating-crypto-exchange-binance.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

The government is inevitably going to come down super hard on crypto in general.

All of the pretexts they need are in place:

#1 it can be used tor drug money transfers
#2 money laundering
#3 tax evasion
#4 negative environmental impact
#5 PONZI schemes



Government always builds a solid case first and the case against crypto currency the recent hacking and extortion related was filled with crypto transfers.

I refuse to call crypto a “currency”. It isn’t. It never will be.

 

[VitalyT]

The day when crypto becomes taxable, will also be the end of the crypto world.

As if polluting the planet through electricity over-use wasn't enough, the same illicit profiteers dodge any tax payments. Any way you look at crypto, it is one giant platform for circumventing and aiding crime.

It is boosted by corrupt politicians like those on payroll from drug cartels and alike, for whom crypto is the gold mine of money laundering.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

The day when crypto becomes taxable, will also be the end of the crypto world.

crypto IS taxable.
It is treated as a capital gain.

the government even made new laws to go after people who earned large profits on crypto.

Research: NIIT addendums

 

[VitalyT]

crypto IS taxable.

That's just in theory. In reality, dodging it is just too easy.

 

[JKnight]

You have to tie crypto to a person, in order to tax it.

 

[VitalyT]

You have to tie crypto to a person, in order to tax it.

That's like tying a year-old fart to a cat, good luck with that.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

You have to tie crypto to a person, in order to tax it.

That’s what the IRS is for

 

[terzaerian]

Binance.US has the worst user experience of any crypto exchange I've used, and while they trade Doge, the dirty secret is that you have to pay them 50 dogecoin to withdraw - not a big deal when it was worth less than a cent but extortion now that it's closing on the dollar mark. I'm also hearing things about how their native exchange token competes with Ethereum that would make Nvidia blush. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Anyone with assets parked on that exchange would be wise to get them off as soon as you can.

 

[cuerdc]

The beginning of the end for crypto I hope

 

[terzaerian]

It is boosted by corrupt politicians

You repeat yourself

 

[VitalyT]

You repeat yourself

I get it, and, sadly, yes.

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

crypto IS taxable.
It is treated as a capital gain.

the government even made new laws to go after people who earned large profits on crypto.

Research: NIIT addendums

Not if you leave it in your crypto wallet

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

Binance.US has the worst user experience of any crypto exchange I've used, and while they trade Doge, the dirty secret is that you have to pay them 50 dogecoin to withdraw - not a big deal when it was worth less than a cent but extortion now that it's closing on the dollar mark. I'm also hearing things about how their native exchange token competes with Ethereum that would make Nvidia blush. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Anyone with assets parked on that exchange would be wise to get them off as soon as you can.

Agreed, I don't use Binance for anything! So I can careless what happens to them. Actually Binance US has the worst support lol. A buddy is still waiting over a month to get his basic information verified and they keep sending him request ticket e-mails asking if he still needs help to reply. Every reply gets him no where. IMO don't use Binance. Instead use Crypto.com, Uphold, Exodus even coinbase is much better.

 

[psycros]

The only thing more volatile than the stock market is cryptocurrency. As with every other sort of speculation only the rich can afford to play in that sandbox for long.

 

[adamada72]

Crypto may be the only tech I've seen in my lifetime that has had SO much money go into it and advertise as being so revolutionary that it'll change everything but in real life, over 10 years later, you don't see any real changes from it. Nothing! Just amazing it still doesn't have a killer feature over all that time. As an example when the VCR was invented 10 years later the world was changed by it, even small towns had a rental shop. When the net was invented in the mid 90's same deal, 10 years later the world was different. With crypto I suspect the brave new world they're selling will always be in the feature because it doesn't bring anything to my world I even remotely care about, only thing I like about it is it goes up. PONZI schemes to the moon!

You rarely see in a lifetime so much money go into something that has so little to give back to the user. Unless you're into criminal activity, ~1/4 of all the money that goes into this exchange is truly something. Amazing!

I just love the idea of everyone using crypto in the feature and moving money around from coin to coin to do this or that, all with fee's. Need to pay the electric bill, move money from bitcoin to stable coin, fee. Forgot, let's take it out of bitcoin but sorry the value fluctuated and you don't have enough now, wait and hour it's back up and you can pay the bill. What a clown world that is. I love this one with contracts, you buy a car and the dealer adds a 15% fee when you go to sell it as part of the digital contract, the city also adds 5%, feds add one on too for 10%, the maker another for 5%, one for the environment for 5% and so on. Selling a car will be like giving them away. It's an obvious idea so we'll see how long it takes for people to figure out how to digital contract you away from your money. Probably not the world crypto fans think they're bringing in.

 

[VitalyT]

The only thing more volatile than the stock market is cryptocurrency. As with every other sort of speculation only the rich can afford to play in that sandbox for long.

The first thing is true, but the second doesn't reflect the reality, which simply continues to prove accuracy of the well-known 90-90-90 formula...

It has always been like this for all traders, whether it is stock market or crypto market: 90% of people will always lose 90% of their money after 90 days of trading. That's one true formula.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Not if you leave it in your crypto wallet

So basically, you must buy into Crypto and never sell - only some tax cheat can move to Puerto Rico and then sell their position to cash out YOUR money.

Got it.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

So basically, you must buy into Crypto and never sell - only some tax cheat can move to Puerto Rico and then sell their position to cash out YOUR money.

Got it.

Tax cheat? I think you mean theft avoider...

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

So basically, you must buy into Crypto and never sell - only some tax cheat can move to Puerto Rico and then sell their position to cash out YOUR money.

Got it.

Get a wallet outside the US... cash out to your bank. Wallets located outside the US don't report your sells to the IRS, only markets with a base in the US have to by law now. I'm teaching you to much now.