• Reports suggest that some Binance employees and trained volunteers are helping users based in China to bypass KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements.
• The reports cited messages from a Discord server and Telegram group, which showed techniques to forge bank documents, falsify addresses, and hide the user’s country of origin.
• Binance has denied these claims, stating that their employees are forbidden from suggesting or supporting users in circumventing local laws.
Binance Employees Allegedly Help Users Bypass KYC Requirements
It has emerged that some Binance employees and trained volunteers are helping users based in China to circumvent the country’s KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements. The message was first picked up from messages circulating in a Telegram group and a Binance-controlled Discord server.
A Dedicated Volunteer Group?
Binance is currently the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by transaction volume, processing over $9 trillion worth of trades in 2021 alone. However, the exchange is not supposed to operate in certain areas and countries, with one such country being China, which banned crypto outright in 2021. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has often called the exchange’s KYC norms a billion-dollar effort, stopping those users that are not supposed to be on the platform.
Circumventing Restrictions
However, it has emerged that Chinese citizens and others around the world have been able to circumvent these restrictions, hiding their country of residence and accessing the platform. According to reports, this has been made possible thanks to some Binance employees and trained volunteers that have been helping these users. The reports cited messages from a Discord server and Telegram group to back their claims. Participants of the group, also called “Angels,” often share techniques to forge bank documents, falsify addresses, and hide the user’s country of origin. This allowed users in restricted countries such as China to bypass KYC norms and controls and access a Binance debit card.
Binance Denies Claims
China had banned crypto exchanges in 2017 and banned cryptocurrencies outright in 2021. Speaking about the reports, a Binance spokesperson stated: “Binance employees are explicitly forbidden from suggesting or supporting users in circumventing their local laws and regulatory policies.” They further added: “and would be immediately dismissed or audited if found to have violated those policies.”
Are Binance’s KYC Protocols Secure?
According to the report, the two groups had over 220 000 registered users who could access them without any control until late March 2021. Volunteers shared video guides showing how anyone can obtain a Binance debit card – effectively turning their account into a regular checking account – by forging bank documents or offering false addresses among other techniques. This raises questions about whether current protocols at major exchanges like Biance are secure enough for customers’ purposes