Crypto News: All About Binance, and CZ’s Plea

Key Insights:

• Binance took in $408M from a crime-linked group after CZ’s 2023 guilty plea, per ICIJ.
• Leaked data and blockchain tracing tied Huione’s wallets to thousands of Binance and OKX accounts.
• Regulators flagged Huione as high-risk, yet the flows to both exchanges continued largely unchanged.

An ICIJ investigation on Nov. 17 reports that Binance accounts took in at least $408 million from a firm tied to criminal activity. The transfers occurred after then CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao admitted guilt to failing to maintain adequate anti–money-laundering controls.

The analysis, part of ICIJ’s “Coin Laundry” series, traced funds flowing between July 2024 and July 2025, when court-appointed monitors to oversaw Binance’s compliance.

The developments arrive only weeks after Zhao received a controversial pardon from President Trump, whose administration signaled a friendlier stance toward digital assets by declaring that the “war on crypto is over.” The timing is likely to renew pressure on regulators to tighten oversight of major trading platforms.

For investors, the situation serves as another reminder that compliance issues remain a structural risk across the industry, and it could dampen sentiment in the near term.

As a recap, U.S. officials disclosed late last year that both Binance and Zhao admitted to felony anti–money-laundering violations.

The exchange agreed to pay roughly $4 billion in penalties and accept court-appointed monitors, while Zhao stepped down from his role as chief executive.. Yet ICIJ claim that Binance “did not” change its ways.

Between the Nov. 2023 plea and the Oct. 2025 pardon, Binance “continued to profit from hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto transactions linked to … organized crime groups,” the report says.

In particular, analysis traced about $408 million in tether tokens flowing into Binance from Huione Group, a Cambodia-based firm tied to Chinese crime gangs.

Crypto News: Illicit flows into Binance

For crypto news followers, ICIJ’s blockchain analysis is eye-opening. It mapped Huione’s wallet addresses to thousands of deposit accounts at Binance and OKX.

The analysts found that from July 2024 through July 2025, Huione funneled on average about $1 million per day into Binance; the pace “continued largely unabated” even after U.S. regulators flagged Huione in May 2025.

Over that period Binance received at least $408 million in USDT from Huione (rival OKX took in about $226 million after its own guilty plea).

These funds were held on Binance to be converted to fiat, underscoring how exchanges can act as rails for moving illicit money.

As noted in crypto news coverage, Binance told ICIJ it “continuously monitors for high-risk activity” and works with global law enforcement.

The firm added that blockchain technology “does not allow it to block deposits” once they enter the system. OKX said it had already subjected Huione-linked addresses to enhanced monitoring and, after the Treasury blacklisted Huione in October, “paused all interactions between OKX wallets and Huione.”

Anti-money-laundering lawyer Ross Delston told ICIJ that normally any entity flagged by the government would be cut off: “you’d be crazy to continue any financial dealings with [a] high-risk entity.”

Regulators flagged Huione, yet activity continued

ICIJ’s findings arrive as crypto exchanges face heightened regulatory scrutiny. U.S. officials have repeatedly signaled that noncompliance would bring enforcement.

Former Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said Binance had “turned a blind eye to its legal obligations” and let money flow to terrorists and cybercriminals.

With the ICIJ report now public, exchanges will be under pressure to prove effective controls. University of Texas Austin professor John Griffin told ICIJ that exchanges earn transaction fees, so “if they kick criminal actors off the platform … they have an incentive to allow this activity to continue.”

Across crypto news outlets, observers warn that if large exchanges do not clamp down on illicit flows, regulators are likely to step in. For crypto news readers, the take-away is that the industry’s compliance-versus-growth debate is far from over.