Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal is increasing his scrutiny of Binance as new questions arise about the exchange’s handling of Iran-related transactions.
The Connecticut senator has been following the issue since February, when he first spoke out Fired An official investigation into whether the cryptocurrency exchange violated US and international sanctions on Iran.
On Friday, April 17, Blumenthal took another step by sending two new letters – this time addressed to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Congress intensifies Binance investigation
The latest messages, reported by Fortune, focus on a specific aspect of compliance monitoring at Binance: the status of two monitors installed to oversee the company’s compliance operations.
According to a reportBlumenthal requested details about the moderators’ position and what they are doing to ensure Binance maintains appropriate procedures to reform and strengthen its compliance program.
These monitoring operations began in 2024. Each monitor reports separately to the Department of Justice and FinCEN, with the aim of ensuring that Binance implements meaningful upgrades to its compliance framework.
Blumenthal’s correspondence reflects what he described as growing concern about “mounting allegations of dangerous lax AML prevention by Binance.”
Silence amid requests for documents
This renewed investigation also comes after multiple outlets reported that Binance fired internal investigators who warned senior executives that more than $1 billion had moved through the exchange to… Wallets linked to Iran.
Binance said those investigators were fired for reasons unrelated to their findings on Iranian activity. The company maintains that it has a strict compliance program, and has continued to deny the allegations raised in Congress.
In addition to pursuing observers, Blumenthal previously requested specific dates for when the companies and individuals involved opened Binance accounts, began sending funds to Iranian brokers, were reported to US law enforcement, and when those accounts or related activities were suspended or removed.
Blumenthal too student Explanations for any delay between notification and action, invoking Senate rules and setting an April 14 deadline for Binance to submit the requested records.
As of this report, it has not been disclosed whether these documents were provided, and there has been no other public statement from Binance or its executives addressing what the senator requested or whether they complied.
Key numbers revealed by the stock exchange
Despite these ongoing investigations, Binance has been steadfast in denying these allegations even before Blumenthal’s recent letter. In a statement dated February 22, the stock exchange said it had conducted a transaction Internal audit It found “no evidence of violations of applicable penal laws.”
The exchange also stated that since the 2023 settlement, which led to former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) resigning from his position, it has updated its compliance processes and provided several statistics intended to show progress over time.
Among the metrics highlighted by Binance, the exchange said that sanctions-related exposure – measured as a proportion of… Total trading volume– It decreased from 0.284% in January 2024 to 0.009% by July 2025, which he described as a 96.8% decline.
The exchange also reported that the volume of transactions involving four major Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges decreased from $4.19 million in January 2024 to $1.1 million by January 2026.
At the time of writing, the exchange’s native token, BNB, is trading at $638, up 4% and 6% over the past 24 hours and seven days respectively.
Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
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