“Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed — now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Garland alluded to the U.S. government’s prosecution of another cryptocurrency executive, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who a jury found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy earlier this month. “The message here should be clear: using new technology to break the law does not make you a disruptor, it makes you a criminal,” Garland said.