GoKawiil
Tech News
Binance is buying $100 million of Circle shares at $80.84 apiece as part of a five-year partnership to promote USDC on its exchange, with the stock subject to a lockup of up to two years. Circle will pay Binance a monthly incentive fee tied to USDC balances held on the platform, and Circle shares rose more than 1% in premarket trading following the announcement.
Binance is expanding its Capital Connect platform, previously reserved for institutions, to allow wealthy individuals meeting a $1 million asset threshold to invest in professional trading strategies. The platform runs on Binance's Portfolio Account system, which manages fees and risk metrics while trading teams handle strategy execution, similar to separately managed accounts in traditional finance. The platform has grown from 106 portfolios and 35 trading teams in May to 212 portfolios and 77 teams by September.
The Justice Department alleges that Hong Kong-based firms Hexa Whale and Blessed Trust used Binance to route roughly $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency tied to black-market Iranian oil sales to Chinese buyers, with proceeds ultimately reaching Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint seeking to seize $61 million connected to the scheme, and some funds reportedly passed through the US financial system to obscure their origin. Binance confirmed the companies' involvement, removed them from its platform, and dismissed several internal investigators who flagged the transactions.