The subpoenas, which have not been previously reported, do not necessarily mean authorities are likely to bring charges, legal experts said. Prosecutors are still discussing a possible settlement with Binance and weighing whether they have enough evidence to bring indictments against the company, Reuters reported last month.
In an interview, Binance chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann said the company is talking to “virtually every regulator across the globe on a daily basis,” but declined to comment on the status of any U.S. investigation. Joshua Stueve, a Justice Department spokesman, also declined to comment.
The federal probe into Binance is unfolding at a time of deep uncertainty in the crypto industry. The implosion of FTX, a popular trading platform that authorities say was a years-long scheme to defraud investors, has fueled concerns about the freewheeling, largely unregulated online marketplaces where digital assets are bought and sold.
Crypto company failures are becoming more common and interconnected. Celsius, a crypto platform that collapsed in July, lent heavily to FTX affiliate Alameda Research, which went bankrupt five months later. Binance’s founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, was an early FTX backer, and his decision to sell off a large chunk of the company’s digital tokens helped spark a customer panic and run on bank…
