Binance filed a defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, on the same day the newspaper published a report claiming that the US Department of Justice is investigating whether Iran used the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange to move funds in violation of US sanctions.
In the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the company said the newspaper published “false and defamatory statements” about its compliance practices and handling of Iran-linked transactions in an article published on Feb. 23.
In that article, the Journal said Binance fired staff who flagged funds moving through the exchange to sanctioned entities, allegations Binance rejected. The lawsuit says Binance did not fire employees for raising compliance concerns. The staff departures were due to alleged violations of internal data protection policies and not retaliation, it said.
“Binance categorically did not dismantle any compliance investigations,” a spokesperson for the exchange told CoinDesk. “The WSJ continues to report the same falsehoods. As a result, we have filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for defamation.”
In Wednesday’s article, the Journal said Justice Department officials contacted people with knowledge of the transactions while gathering evidence linked to cryptocurrencies moving through the platform. He cited people familiar with the situation. It is unclear whether the department is examining possible wrongdoing by Binance itself or whether it is focusing solely on customers who used the exchange, he said.
Binance strikes back
In a blog post published Wednesday, the exchange addressed the Journal’s February report point by point. It said the $1.7 billion in funds flagged “did not originate at Binance or end up at Binance,” but rather passed through multiple independent intermediaries, and that “the vast majority of the funds” had “no confirmed Iranian nexus.”
The newspaper had said that internal investigators had detected crypto transfers from Chinese clients to wallets linked to Iranian financial networks. A large portion of the funds, more than $1 billion, allegedly flowed through Blessed Trust, a Hong Kong-based payments company that worked with the exchange.
Binance said its researchers were “granted immediate access” to the Blessed Trust account, which “was repeatedly renewed, as confirmed by system logs.”
It says it identified the suspicious activity through information from law enforcement and its own internal investigation, then reported the activity and deleted the accounts involved.
Earlier this month, it told a US Senate investigation that it had found no evidence that accounts on its platform transacted directly with Iranian entities.
“The truth is that the Binance investigation continued and uncovered a sophisticated, multi-jurisdictional pattern of financial activity spanning Asia, the Middle East and beyond,” the spokesperson said. “Binance mapped this complex activity, deleted the relevant user accounts, and informed the authorities.”
The company says it “fully cooperates with law enforcement” and employs more than 1,500 people in compliance and risk functions, equivalent to around 25% of its global workforce.
Legal focus
The lawsuit and investigation puts Binance back in the legal spotlight.
In 2020, he sued Forbes for making false allegations against the company. That lawsuit was dropped several months later.
In 2023, the company pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering and sanctions laws and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines. Founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao also pleaded guilty to a related charge and served four months in prison before receiving a presidential pardon in October 2025.
As part of the agreement, Binance operates under a US-appointed compliance monitor. That monitor has also requested records related to transfers linked to Iran.
UPDATE (March 11 at 13:00 UTC): Adds a statement from Binance, details of the court case, and details of the Journal report starting in the third paragraph.
