HTX Denies Role in Dusting Transfers as Binance Restrictions Near

HTX says official channels did not send the transfers

Molly, an HTX executive, said an internal review found no official HTX involvement in the transactions.

“What we can confirm at present is that HTX’s official channels have not initiated any related transfers or testing activities,” Molly said.

Molly said HTX was still tracing the funds and did not rule out address-tagging errors or incorrectly interpreted on-chain information. Earlier, she characterized the allegations as either a misunderstanding or deliberate trouble-making.

No on-chain evidence tied Justin Sun personally to the transfers. References by 0xZiye to “Brother Sun” reflected the trader’s allegation rather than established attribution.

The compliance concerns around HTX-linked funds follow sanctions actions involving entities associated with the HTX name. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office designated 18 entities and individuals on May 26, 2026, including HTX, EXMO, BitPapa and Rapira, as part of an action it said targeted the A7 network.

HTX has disputed the scope of sanctions-linked treatment against its business, saying the Panamanian-registered entity subject to sanctions is separate from its trading operations. HTX has also said regulatory compliance remains a priority.

The sanctions actions are administrative measures rather than criminal convictions, and none of the named platforms had been convicted of an offense in connection with those actions.

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Binance stages restrictions across 16 crypto-related entities

Binance said it is stopping direct and indirect transactions involving 16 crypto-related entities through three August cutoff dates, citing “recent regulatory developments.” The restrictions target counterparties connected to transactions rather than individual cryptocurrencies.

The final group includes Aifory Pro, identified as Sooty Ltd; ABCeX, identified as Nueva Cryptologia S.A.S DE C.V.; Tradex, identified as Brightum LLC; Exnode and Exnode Pay, identified as Arvix; HTX, identified as Huobi Global SA; and the other entities listed in the final cutoff.

Binance’s restrictions do not amount to delisting Bitcoin, USDT or other cryptocurrencies simply because those assets are available on an affected platform. The controls instead apply to the service provider connected to the transaction, regardless of which asset is being transferred.

Binance said deposits and withdrawals can also be screened for links to designated services when funds move through intermediary addresses before reaching or leaving a listed platform. A transaction connected to one of the affected counterparties can therefore be held for compliance review even when the immediately preceding wallet is not the designated service itself.

Transactions attempted with a listed entity after its applicable cutoff may be placed on hold, according to Binance. The wallet associated with the transaction may also face restrictions during the review, and interaction with a designated service may breach Binance’s terms of use.

Restrictions track European and U.S. sanctions actions

The entities covered by Binance’s later two stages align with crypto services named under the European Union’s 21st sanctions package against Russia, adopted in July 2026. Those measures expanded transaction bans to certain crypto platforms outside the bloc that authorities said had facilitated sanctions circumvention.

The EU measures formally bind firms within its jurisdiction, while Binance’s announced controls carried no comparable geographic limitation and were presented across its user base.

HTX was already included in the European Union’s broader sanctions push that month, when it was named among crypto services facing transaction restrictions intended to reduce channels that could be used to circumvent sanctions on Russia.

Shelbit, formally Shelbit General Trading LLC, and Aban Tether Exchange were separately designated by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control as part of an action against networks the Treasury said served the Iranian regime.

EXMO has separately announced that it is winding down.

Binance has cited its own compliance metrics while defending its sanctions-control record. The exchange said sanctions exposure fell 96.8% between January 2024 and July 2025 and said its compliance team has almost 1,500 employees, representing about one-quarter of its global workforce.

Unsolicited deposits create a compliance burden for recipients

The reported dusting incidents highlight a structural problem in exchange compliance: an address owner can receive funds without consenting to the transaction, while centralized platforms may still examine the provenance of those assets once they arrive.

The supplied accounts describe tiny HTX-labeled transfers as potentially enough to trigger scrutiny of an entire account. That creates a sharp imbalance between the cost of sending a dust transaction and the consequences for a recipient whose account is placed under review.

Mass dusting has occurred in other contexts. A revived Salomon Brothers entity previously sent dust transactions to 40,000 Bitcoin wallets while asserting claims over $150 billion in supposedly abandoned Bitcoin.

That earlier episode involved a different actor and claim. The current HTX-linked transfers remain under investigation by HTX, which has said its official channels did not initiate them.