Binance CEO Richard Teng has pushed back against a Wall Street Journal report alleging that roughly $850 million in Iran-linked transactions moved through the crypto exchange to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Teng called the report inaccurate and said the company had no record of such transfers.
The WSJ allegations
The Journal published its report earlier this week, claiming that funds tied to Iranian entities were routed through Binance between 2018 and 2022. The story cited blockchain data and unnamed sources, suggesting that the transactions ultimately benefited the IRGC, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. If true, the flow would raise serious questions about Binance’s compliance with international sanctions.
Binance has faced regulatory heat before, including fines and warnings from U.S. authorities over anti-money-laundering controls. But the company has also made repeated public pledges to tighten its screening processes after a series of enforcement actions.
Teng’s denial
On social media and in a statement to the press, Teng flatly rejected the Journal’s findings. He said Binance’s internal review found no evidence of the transactions described in the article. Teng did not specify whether the exchange had ever processed any Iran-linked funds in smaller amounts or through different channels, but he was clear that the $850 million figure was not supported by Binance’s data.
The denial comes at a sensitive time for the company. Binance is still working to rebuild trust with regulators after former CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023 and stepped down. Teng took over with a promise to focus on compliance and transparency.
What happens next
The Journal has not published a correction or additional reporting in response to Teng’s denial. It is unclear whether the newspaper will release the underlying blockchain data it relied on, or whether Binance will open its own records to an independent audit. For now, the dispute sits unresolved—one side insists the transactions happened, the other says they didn’t. No regulator has announced an investigation based on the report.
