Crypto exchange Binance cops $2 million fine for spamming

Crypto-currency exchange giant Binance has paid a $2 million fine for spam breaches, after sending out millions of non-compliant emails, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said.

The crypto-currency exhange also entered a three-year court enforceable undertaking to undergo an independent review of its e-marketing practices and implementation of improvements, ACMA said.

Binance Australia sent over 5.7 million commercial emails between October 2021 and May 2022 that were difficult to opt out from, as they required recipients to log into an account, or did not contain a way to unsubscribe.

Furthermore, a batch of 25 emails were sent without the recipients' consent, ACMA found.

ACMA's chair Nerida O'Loughlin said the Spam Act has been in effect since 2003 and there are simply no excuses for the non-compliance from large size companies.

"Customers should not be made to log in to stop receiving messages," O'Loughlin said.

Binance Australia was also criticised by ACMA for not taking action over complaints about its commercial email practices.

"It is also disappointing that the ACMA had contacted Binance Australia on several occasions leading up to the investigation to warn that it may have had compliance problems and it failed to take adequate action," O'Loughlin said.

Originally founded in China by developer Changpen Zhao or CZ, Binance is the largest crypto-currency exchange in the world.

It has a chequered history, having been investigated by financial regulators and tax authorities in the United States and Britain.

The exchange also shared client information with Russia's foreign intelligence service FSB in 2021, Reuters reported.

This week, Binance experienced a large amount of funds withdrawals, hitting US$1.9 billion in 24 hours, following the failure of crypto currency exchange FTX.

Binance operates worldwide, but had to move its headquarters out of China after the government there imposed strict regulations on crypto-currency trading.

The company fined was Investbybit Pty Ltd, which trades as Binance Australia.