Dutch Central Bank Warns Binance Is Illegally Offering Crypto Exchange Services in Netherlands

The Dutch central bank has issued a warning against Binance stating that the company is illegally providing crypto exchange and custodian wallet services in the Netherlands without the required legal registration.

Binance Operating Illegally in the Netherlands, Central Bank Warns

Binance’s troubles with regulators worldwide continue this week with the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), issuing a warning about the crypto exchange Wednesday.

The notice states:

Binance is providing crypto services in the Netherlands without the required legal registration with the DNB.

“This means Binance is not in compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme – Wwft) and is illegally offering services for the exchange between virtual and fiduciary currencies and it is illegally offering custodian wallets,” the central bank continued, adding:

This may increase the risk of customers becoming involved in money laundering or terrorist financing.

The central bank clarified that its warning includes “Binance Holdings Limited as the owner of intellectual property rights, as well as the entities (‘Binance Operators’) under which Binance provides crypto services in the Netherlands.”

Other regulators that have issued warnings against the cryptocurrency exchange include those in Malaysia, Japan, the U.K., Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany, and Lithuania.

Responding to regulatory scrutiny worldwide, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) explained this week that the company has made regulatory compliance its top priority and is seeking to “significantly” add to its legal and compliance teams. He added that Binance is “going through a pivot from a technology innovator into a financial services company.”

On Wednesday, the global crypto exchange announced that it has hired Greg Monahan, former U.S. Treasury Criminal Investigator, who joins the organization as a Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer (GMLRO). This followed the departure of former acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks, as the CEO of Binance US.