Binance Australia Derivatives fined $6.9 million over compliance and onboarding failures

The Federal Court imposed a penalty of AUD 10 million ($6.9 million) on Binance Australia Derivatives (Oztures Trading Pty Ltd) after the firm admitted to misclassifying 524 retail clients as wholesale investors over nine months, exposing them to high-risk crypto derivatives without required consumer protections. These misclassifications led to clients incurring AUD 8.66 million in trading losses and AUD 3.9 million in fees. ASIC Chair Joe Longo noted that the firm failed basic compliance checks, allowing hundreds of applications to pass incorrectly. Binance admitted to six contraventions between July 2022 and April 2023, including failing to provide product disclosure statements and inadequate employee training. This penalty is in addition to approximately AUD 13.1 million in compensation payments already overseen by ASIC for affected clients in 2023. Binance Australia Derivatives' AFS license was canceled in April 2023 at its request.

(Source：The Block)