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Binance Strikes Back: Why It Is Taking The Wall Street Journal To Court

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Binance has filed a defamation lawsuit towards The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) over a “false and defamatory” article.

Why Binance Filed

Following a WSJ reporting published on February 23, Binance has introduced on a blog post today that they’ve filed a lawsuit towards them, claiming that the article contained “false and defamatory statements”. The grievance seeks “vindication” of Binance’s status and “accountability for the hurt these statements have triggered”, citing amongst these penalties “baseless and pointless inquiries into the corporate” by authorities officers, referring to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

Dugan Bliss, Binance’s Global Head of Litigation, assured within the weblog put up that Binance takes “immense pleasure” of their compliance program, mirrored by the belief that greater than 300 million customers worldwide proceed to position within the firm. As said by Bliss:

We view this lawsuit as a essential step to defend ourselves towards misinformation, maintain The Wall Street Journal accountable for prioritizing clicks over journalistic integrity, and deal with the numerous reputational hurt and enterprise penalties which have resulted.

Binance’s attorneys (Withers Bergman / Withersworldwide) despatched a proper letter demanding fast corrections, a full retraction, and removing of the WSJ piece. This conflict follows Binance’s 2023 4.3 billion dollar U.S. settlement and responsible plea over anti‑cash‑laundering and sanctions violations, nonetheless shaping the change’s monitorship immediately, which WSJ reportedly used as context to recommend ongoing compliance weaknesses.

Inside The WSJ “Defamatory” Article

The 23th February WSJ article accused of being “critically deceptive” by Binance reported that Binance investigators recognized round $1 billion in crypto shifting by way of the change to a community tied to Iranian entities and teams below U.S. sanctions. WSJ claimed that inside investigators uncovered giant transfers from Binance shoppers to Iran‑linked teams (together with Houthi‑aligned entities) in 2024–2025 and that some workers who pushed the difficulty had been sidelined or eliminated, as covered by an article on our sister’s website Bitcoinist.

“Measurable Results”

Binance argues that WSJ ignored in depth rebuttals and cherry‑picked ex‑worker claims, pointing to “measurable enchancment over time” based mostly on inside information, reminiscent of a 97%+ discount in publicity to sanctioned entities and expanded sanctions screening after the 2023 settlement or their help on the freezing and restoration of a whole lot of million of {dollars} linked to illicit exercise in 2025. They clarified that whereas the way in which public blockchains work means the chance can’t be diminished to zero, they’re accountable in monitoring attainable criminal activity:

As we’ve famous earlier than, public blockchains permit any celebration to ship belongings to an change deposit deal with with out the change’s prior approval. That actuality means threat can’t be diminished to absolute zero on any blockchain platform. Responsible operators give attention to detection, investigation, mitigation, offboarding, and reporting, backed by ongoing monitoring and steady enchancment.

What This Case Means For Crypto

Reputational and authorized threat may nonetheless form Binance’s entry to banking companions and sure jurisdictions, which in flip can have an effect on liquidity, itemizing confidence, and perceived counterparty threat. The case can also affect how aggressively large media shops cowl crypto compliance going ahead: if Binance wins or forces corrections, different initiatives could be faster to push again on crucial narratives, but when WSJ prevails, anticipate even sharper investigative give attention to exchanges’ sanctions controls.

Following Binance’s immediately’s weblog put up asserting the lawsuit, WSJ took down one other report printed immediately claiming the Department of Justice is investigating Iran’s use of Binance to evade sanctions.

Cover picture from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

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