Binance is demanding that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) remove an article about the crypto exchange firing investigators who discovered $1 billion worth of crypto being sent to Iran-linked wallets.
Binance CEO Richard Teng shared a letter addressed to the WSJ’s Editor-in-Chief, Emma Tucker, and Dow Jones Vice President, Jason Conti, on X today that accuses the WSJ of publishing “defamatory claims” in Monday’s article.
It claims that the article contains “false information” which “should be corrected immediately,” and that any defamatory imputations should be retracted.
Binance says it wants the WSJ to take down the article until the requested corrections are made.
The letter doesn’t explicitly suggest Binance will pursue legal action, but says it must update the piece, “thus potentially avoiding the need for any further action.”
Read more: Is Binance sending cease-and-desist letters?
Binance claims that its client, which remains nameless, “reasonably, cooperatively, and promptly” responded to a series of questions put forward by a WSJ journalist.
However, it claims the piece “fails to reflect” their responses and “falsely asserts to readers that Binance engaged in illegal conduct by breaching Iranian sanctions.”
“While you solicited our client’s position, your failure to reflect our client’s responses is inconsistent with your ethical obligations to ‘remain fair, accurate and impartial’, and suggests an agenda already set, which does not amount to responsible journalism,” Binance claimed.
WSJ says Binance sleuths found sanction-breaking transactions
The WSJ published the article yesterday with the headline “Binance Fired Staff Who Flagged $1 Billion Moving to Sanctioned Iran Entities.”
It claimed that, based on company documents and unnamed sources familiar with Binance, the investigators were fired after uncovering a suspicious account owned by the Hong Kong company Blessed Trust.
The firm converts fiat currency into crypto, and the investigators found it had sent more than $1 billion worth of tether (USDT) to a series of wallets, known as “Entity A.”
US law enforcement claims Entity A is a shadow banking network run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that allows Chinese companies to pay for Iran’s oil.
The account raised numerous internal alerts of suspicious activity throughout 2025. By the time the investigation was raised to Binance’s top execs, the lead investigator and the head of sanctions and counterterrorist financing investigations were suspended, and fired weeks later.
Read more: US hits Iran’s ‘shadow banking’ network in Hong Kong, UAE
A Binance spokesperson told the WSJ that the investigators weren’t fired for raising compliance concerns, but instead left “based on individual circumstances.”
They added that the investigation continued after their departure and that the accounts in question were removed from Binance.
US President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of the company, weeks before the crypto exchange fired the investigators.
All this took place during a period of intense geopolitical tension between the US and Iran. Iran is subject to global sanctions and, as such, is reliant on cryptocurrencies such as USDT to bypass these restrictions.
Iran is now facing a US armada on its doorstep as Trump continues to build his country’s military presence in an attempt to pressure Iran into dropping its nuclear program.
Binance founding member ‘friend’ of Blessed Trust representative
The WSJ also reported that Blessed Trust enjoyed close ties with one of Binance’s founding members, Jukai He, otherwise known as “Rock.”
Screenshots revealed that Rock had some form of friendship with one of Blessed’s representatives. The investigation also found that Binance employees, and a device within Rock’s team, were logging into the Blessed Binance account.
Binance representatives told the WSJ that Rock has no supervisory or operational role within Blessed Trust, and that no Binance employees had logged into the Blessed Trust account.
It said, “Any suggestion that Blessed Trust was operated, directed, or controlled by Binance is false,” and added that the WSJ’s claims are based on “incorrect investigation records.”
Protos has reached out to the WSJ for comment on Binance’s article demands and will update this piece should we hear anything back.
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