Via a Twitter post on Friday, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said that the cryptocurrency exchange recovered $5.8 million spread over 86 accounts in digital assets moved to the exchange by Lazarus Group. Last month, the North Korean cyber-criminal group allegedly stole 173,600 Ether (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC), worth over $600 million at the time, belonging to Axie Infinity's Ronin bridge. As of Friday, the wallet address associated with the Ronin has around $280 million in digital assets remaining. Blockchain forensics company Elliptic recently uncovered that the hackers have been sending the money to centralized exchanges and …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, is adopting major restrictions on users in Russia following the European Union’s fifth package of sanctions against Russia. Binance officially announced Thursday new limitations for Russian nationals or residents of Russia, restricting such persons from trading if they hold over 10,000 euros, or $10,800. Restricted accounts are no longer able to deposit or trade using Binance’s spot, futures and custody wallets, as well as staked and earned deposits. The restriction relates to Russian nationals, natural persons residing in Russia and legal entities based in Russia, the announcement notes, adding: “Accounts for Russian …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, released a new Binance Emoji on Twitter that users noticed bore a striking resemblance to a swastika. On Wednesday morning, Binance CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao retweeted Binance’s original post, adding “#binance” to show off the new emoji. The original posts, which have since been deleted, were quick to do the rounds on Twitter in the form of screenshots, where users immediately began criticizing the resemblance. The new Binance emoji is a literal swastika pic.twitter.com/lCOuWuPnyF — mann0000.eth (@nftshare) April 20, 2022 Smaller Twitter account Nftshare posted about it to their 300 followers, which gained more …

Thailand-based Gulf Energy has made strategic investments in cryptocurrency exchange Binance US and signaled its pursuit of a joint venture with the global Binance exchange as part of a targeted effort to gain exposure to the digital asset market. Gulf Energy disclosed in a regulatory filing on April 18 that it invested in “Series Seed Preferred Stock issued by BAM Trading Services Inc.,” which is the operator of Binance US. The investment in Binance US gives Gulf Energy exposure to “one of the fastest user scale-up exchanges in the world” well ahead of the exchange’s planned initial public offering, the …

A major Russian banking association wants to criminalize keeping your own cryptocurrency keys. The Association of Banks of Russia, an organization that includes more than 300 Russian banks and financial institutions, has called on lawmakers to criminalize storing crypto outside of centralized exchanges on noncustodial wallets, local news agency Izvestia reported on Monday. In contrast to accounts at centralized crypto exchanges, noncustodial or self-custodial wallets allow users to store crypto without relying on a third party that is able to freeze, block or seize the user's crypto assets. This essentially enables investors to “be their own bank” by getting full …

Integration of CeFi and DeFi through Binance Bridge 2.0 DeFi is driving the development of cutting-edge Web3 use cases such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), gaming and the metaverse. With the Binance Bridge 2.0, DeFi can be brought to a broader audience worldwide while maintaining the same smooth user experience as CeFi. Most of the “DeFi” ecosystem relies on centralized services because of convenience, which enables us to understand where the traditional world of centralized banking and the new world of decentralized money might intersect to everyone's benefit. Binance, with its first bridge, made it possible to bridge assets listed on …

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, announced the launch of its customer service center, Cointelegraph Turkey reported. Binance picked Turkey, where it established a local entity roughly two years ago, as the pilot country for its new service. A possible reason for Binance to pick Turkey is the high volume of traffic the exchange is getting from the country. Similarweb data shows that Turkey accounts for over 7% of the desktop browser access to Binance's primary platform. Binance will provide its Turkish customers with 24/7 customer care support through its app, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph …

The Bitcoin Lightning Network integration started to take off among the cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. However, some of the world’s largest crypto trading platforms seemingly are not in the hurry to integrate the protocol. Last week, Robinhood crypto trading app became the latest major industry player to announce the Lightning integration, following in the footsteps of BitPay and the Kraken crypto exchange. As the main goal of the Lightning integration is to reduce the cost of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions and accelerate the network transfers, one may wonder what cryptocurrency exchanges have still not added the Lightning support. Binance, Coinbase and FTX …

During Paris Blockchain Week, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange in the world, sat down with Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall for an exclusive interview. When asked about what excites him the most in crypto in 2022, Zhao said "We're now seeing regulators who want to be a part of this industry. So I think that's one of the most fundamental things we've shifted." "Multiple countries, such as the U.S., issued an executive order regarding stablecoins. Along with Bahrain, Dubai built a regulatory framework and issued a number of licenses to big players." Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao …

Attending and reporting from the two-day Paris Blockchain Week Summit (PBWS), Cointelegraph’s managing editor, Alex Cohen sat down with Helen Hai, head of Binance's NFT platform for a candid discussion on the early inspirations for their NFT platform, as well as her vision for regulatory communication, among other topics. Citing the methods in which the Asian economy capitalized on the growth potential within the second industrial revolution by driving job creation for the lower and middle classes, Hai stated that the internet era — typically referenced as Web2 — was a contributing factor for the widening of digital-economic disparities between …

The top centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have reached all-time highs for market share this year as trading volume in crypto consolidates onto the platforms of only a few trusted companies. So named “top-tier” crypto exchanges have increased their market share from 89% in August 2021 to 96% in February 2022 according to data collected by UK analytics company CryptoCompare published on Monday, April 11. The firm analyzed over 150 active centralized exchanges, ranking them on security, number of assets available, regulatory compliance, KYC checks, and more, grading them from a top score of AA to a low of F with “top …

Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, received in-principle approval to operate in Abu Dhabi, marking its third regulatory approval in the Middle Eastern region after Bahrain and Dubai. The in-principle approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) allows Binance to operate as a broker-dealer in digital assets including cryptocurrencies — marking yet another milestone for the crypto exchange, which envisions to operate as a fully-licensed firm. @binance, one of the world's leading #blockchain and #cryptocurrency platforms, received an IPA from the #ADGM Financial Services Regulator Authority. pic.twitter.com/jhHenzaahE — Abu Dhabi Global Market (@ADGlobalMarket) April …