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Chronicles

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Pakistan seeks records from Binance as part of a probe into a scam alleging Binance wallets and integrated apps were used to defraud ~$100M from Pakistani users

Aislinn Keely / The Block :

The Block Aislinn Keely

Context & Ripple Effects

Pakistan's records demand lands on an exchange already under multi-jurisdiction pressure: the US criminal probe that expanded to the CFTC in 2021, the subpoenas to US hedge funds over their Binance communications in 2023, and the SEC's court filing alleging CZ-controlled entities received $12B+ in customer assets. What distinguishes this case is its trigger — not market conduct or sanctions, but a consumer scam allegedly run through Binance wallets and integrated apps against local users.

First-order effects

  • Pakistani investigators now have formal grounds to trace how roughly $100M moved through Binance wallets and integrated apps, putting Binance in the position of either handing over user records or contesting the request in a market where it operates.
  • Binance's compliance posture becomes the story: it has previously supplied transaction records and passport copies to Russian authorities, so any refusal here invites questions about selective cooperation.

Second-order effects

  • The Nigeria playbook — detain executives, demand top-user data, then litigate — shows where records requests can escalate; Pakistan's probe gives other governments a template for framing exchange data access as a consumer-protection necessity rather than a surveillance ask.
  • European police have already flagged Binance's April 2025 request-routing policy as significantly delaying criminal investigations, so each new national probe raises the cost of that routing structure.

Third-order effects

  • If the pattern holds, global exchanges face being treated as accountable financial infrastructure jurisdiction by jurisdiction — with data handovers, executive detention, and multibillion-dollar claims like Nigeria's $79.5B economic-loss suit becoming standard enforcement tools rather than outliers.
  • Binance's own internal files, per the FT investigation showing suspicious flows continued past its 2023 US deal, suggest the deeper exposure is systemic: every new national probe tests whether post-settlement controls actually work at the wallet level.

The trend: Governments are shifting from politely requesting crypto-exchange cooperation to coercive extraction — records demands, detained executives, and damage suits — making per-country data access the price of operating globally.