Blockchain data reveals that cryptocurrency firm Binance has processed $8 billion worth of Iranian transactions since 2018 despite U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran from the world banking system, according to Reuters.
An analysis of data from renowned U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis indicates that almost all the money-roughly $7.8 billion-flowed between Binance and Iran's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex.
In fact, Nobitex's website details how to avoid sanctions.
Low-profile Crypto: Tron
Three-quarters of the Iranian assets that went through Binance were invested in Tron, a fairly low-profile cryptocurrency that allows users to hide their identities, as per Reuters.
The mid-tier Tron can be used to trade anonymously without "endangering assets" owing to sanctions, according to a blog post published by Nobitex last year.
The recent findings coincide with the US Justice Department's investigation into alleged money-laundering breaches by Binance, which controls the $1 trillion cryptocurrency market and has over 120 million users.
Lawyers and trade sanctions experts warned that the transactions run the risk of breaking American laws prohibiting doing business with Iran.
Reuters reported in July that Binance was still accepting customers from Iran and that the business was aware of the exchange's popularity in the sanctioned country.
Binance stated in a blog post the day after that report was published that it abides by international sanctions regulations on Iran and denies access to the platform to anyone residing in the country.
"Binance.com is not a U.S. company, unlike other platforms that have exposure to these same U.S. sanctioned entities. However, we have taken proactive steps to limit our exposure to the Iranian marketplace," Binance's spokesperson Patrick Hillmann said in a statement.
Read also : Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao Says He Was Surprised When Elon Musk Continued his Twitter Takeover
Largest Market Trading for Tron
Three companies with access to Chainalysis' Reactor research software provided Reuters with the Tron information as well as additional datasets covering the other crypto coins.
Industry research shows that Binance is the largest market for trading Tron. The coin is not included on other large exchanges, such as Coinbase and Gemini.
Since April 2020, when the first Tron flows were tracked, the Tron dataset has information on more than 1.15 million direct transfers between Binance and Nobitex. The information includes wallet addresses and a specific transaction-specific identification number, according to Reuters.
The data reveals that more Iranian transactions are going via Binance than any other exchange combined. Since 2018, KuCoin, situated in Seychelles, has processed $820 million in transactions, making it the second-most popular exchange for Nobitex customers behind Binance.
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Written by Jace Dela Cruz
