February 23, 2026
Crypto cops vs. coin kings
Binance Fired Employees Who Found $1.7B in Crypto Was Sent to Iran
Whistleblowers or rule‑breakers? Commenters split over Binance firings and crypto’s dark side
TLDR: Report says Binance investigators found $1.7B flowed to Iran-linked entities, then several staff on the probe were fired or suspended. Commenters are split between “whistleblowers punished,” “headline clickbait,” and “crypto’s freedom invites bad actors,” with CZ’s Trump pardon turning the thread into a full-on culture clash.
Binance’s own investigators reportedly traced $1.7B flowing from two company accounts to Iranian-linked entities — one tied to a vendor — and flagged more than 1,500 Iranian accounts. Then, per the report, Binance fired or suspended at least four people on the probe. Cue internet meltdown. One camp is yelling “cover-up!”, the other says “HR did HR things,” and a third is busy fact-checking the headline. As one commenter put it, the HN title was “misleading” because the original story said fired or suspended, not just fired.
The spiciest thread? A brutal debate over crypto’s core promise. “Isn’t this the #1 use case for crypto?” one user snarked — untraceable money until it’s used for stuff you hate, then suddenly “government please control this!” Others countered that if a system “can’t be regulated or tracked,” it inevitably attracts people who most want to dodge rules — a polite way of saying crime finds the path of least resistance.
Adding gasoline: reminders that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) pleaded guilty in 2024 and was pardoned by Trump in 2025, which turned every comment into a political flame war. Meanwhile, a classic HN move appeared: someone dropped an archive link like a mic, while the rest argued whether this was whistleblowing punished or just sloppy data handling dressed up as heroism.
Key Points
- •Internal Binance investigators traced about $1.7 billion from two accounts to Iranian-linked entities, a possible sanctions violation.
- •Investigators found over 1,500 Binance accounts had been accessed by people in Iran over the prior year.
- •One of the two accounts involved in the flows belonged to a Binance vendor.
- •After reporting findings to executives, Binance fired or suspended at least four employees, citing protocol violations related to client data.
- •These events followed Binance’s 2023 guilty plea to anti-money-laundering violations and its pledge to enhance compliance.