Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, has launched a six-part video series featuring members of its compliance team with the goal of debunking myths about crime and compliance in crypto.
Tigran Gambaryan, head of Financial Crimes Compliance at Binance, said in the latest video in the series that he first encountered cryptocurrency when working in law enforcement, and he was drawn to the industry because he saw how the transparency of the technology made it easier for investigators to catch criminals.
"I spent the bulk of my career of 15 years in law enforcement, then a bit with IRS criminal investigations, where in addition to working the legacy crimes like money laundering and organized crime, drug trafficking and public corruption, I was drawn into the cryptocurrency world," Gambaryan said. "I got into the world because I saw the opportunity, and I saw just how transparent it was and what it allowed investigators to do. That's what brought me into the world [of cryptocurrency]."
He started working on cryptocurrency investigations in 2012, which opened doors to further endeavors in this field.
"That took me to a career where I was able to make a substantial impact in the industry by cleaning up the bad actors, putting away people responsible for child abuse, drug trafficking, public corruption, all because of the transparency that cryptocurrency provided," Gambaryan said. "I assisted with building out the cyber program on the government side and within the Department of the Treasury, and my goal is to do the same for Binance."
In an earlier video in the series, Matt Price, Binance's global head of Intelligence & Investigations, took on the misconception that crypto makes it easy for illicit actors to use it to commit crimes.
“The myth that crypto is anonymous that allows for illicit activity is actually quite the opposite. The fact that the transactions are publicly recorded leaves a permanent record of what actually occurred,” Price said. “Investigators that are using investigative tools, their investigative power, lawful power to request information, actually have an easier time, in many cases, identifying who is conducting these activities than they would in a traditional financial investigation.”
Richard Teng, Binance’s regional head of Europe and MENA (Middle East and North Africa), showed in one of the videos that laundering via crypto is a minute portion of the funds laundered through the traditional fiat space annually.
“If you look at traditional media and traditional press, you would think that crypto is full of illicit funds and money laundering is prevailing in crypto, but the opposite is true,” Teng said. “If you look at the traditional fiat space, close to between $800 billion and $2 trillion is laundered via fiat channels on a yearly basis. The amount of illicit funds in crypto is miniscule in comparison: It's 0.03% of that amount.”
Senior VP of Compliance at Binance Steve Christie said in another video, “The biggest misconception here, at least from my perspective, is that crypto is used by criminals and scammers and fraudsters, and there is no intrinsic value in the crypto space. First off, the criminal elements within crypto are vastly overstated. There is a small percentage of that that goes on in the industry. The vast majority of the activity is really about real investment into the space and real use cases that have the potential really of transforming our entire global economy.”
Jon West, a founding member of the Texas Blockchain Council, told the Lone Star Standard that although crypto might look like "the Wild West" at the moment, similar to how the internet was in its early days, technological innovation is rapidly progressing. "Admittedly, the good and bad seem more extreme," West said, "but things are continuously moving faster and are bigger due to technology."
A survey conducted by The Harris Poll last fall said that 53% of Americans believe “cryptocurrencies are the future of finance."