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DOJ Memo Told Prosecutors to Expect Less Binance Help Starting June 8

The internal guidance warns that informal account ‘freezes’ may give way to formal legal requests, a change that could slow time‑sensitive crypto asset recovery and reshape investigations.

Overview

  • The Justice Department circulated an internal memo that told prosecutors to expect reduced cooperation from Binance beginning June 8, according to multiple reports.
  • The memo reportedly said Binance may stop offering informal “courtesy freezes” and that some holds would require Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty requests or other formal court orders.
  • Binance has publicly denied any change to its U.S. law‑enforcement cooperation and pointed to its Law Enforcement Request System, past compliance spending, and hundreds of thousands of processed requests.
  • There is no public record of Binance refusing a specific U.S. request or of enforcement action tied to the June 8 guidance since that date.
  • The dispute sits on top of Binance’s 2023 guilty plea and $4.3 billion settlement with court‑ordered monitoring, and reports that the company is negotiating to end the DOJ monitorship raise questions about how fast investigators can secure stolen crypto and how victims may be affected.