Quantcast

Crypto lawyer: 'I have a little bit of beef with traditional financial institutions'

Binance Exec Tigran Gambaryan Denied Bail by Nigerian Court
Bybit, Kucoin, Bitget... Is the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) campaigning against cryptocurrencies?
Shiba Inu (SHIB) threatens to top DOGE: This crypto battle is raging!
Why regulators fear an Ethereum ETF: ‘What did we just do?’
Vanguard hires ex-BlackRock Bitcoin ETF supervisor as CEO
Millennium Management holds nearly $2 billion in spot bitcoin ETF shares
Consensys is revolutionizing crypto with Smart Transactions on MetaMask
Should you buy or sell Bitcoin according to these influential people in the industry?
Humanity Protocol raises $30M to compete with Worldcoin
Louis Vuitton-Affiliated Château d’Esclans And BlockBar To Sell $22,000 NFT Rosé Barrel
Bitcoin worth over $60 million moved for the first time in 10 years
Crypto: This is how tokenization revolutionizes real estate
Top cryptocurrencies to watch this week: ETH, BOME, HNT
BlockFi hires Coinbase to return crypto to its creditors
International Monetary Fund Tells Nigeria To Regulate Crypto Trading Platforms
Arsenal has a sports coin and so does PSG — inside the wacky $3bn market where prices soar for no reason
Solana users are paying millions to stop bots attacking their trades
Nigeria: cryptocurrency exchanges against the local naira (NGN) will soon be banned
Tether announces expansion into Eastern Europe, invests in CityPay
Understand the market to buy and sell Bitcoin at the right time
SEC Delays Decision on Invesco Galaxy Spot Ethereum ETF
Bitcoin (BTC) rebounds over the weekend after a sharp fall
Coinbase benefitting from 'hostile regulatory environment': Bitwise
Blockchain Business School And Pyratzlabs Team Up To Finance Your Web3 Training
This Week's Top Crypto News: Bitcoin, Binance, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple
Crypto companies raise $2.5bn in first quarter — a ‘lacklustre’ 29% increase
Ethereum: The rush of crypto investors continues despite the price drop
Angry investors say ZKasino stole $30m in crypto as Dutch police make arrest linked to scam
Coinbase Profit Jumps As Crypto Rally
Jack Dorsey and Block under legal investigation, but buy more Bitcoin
Crypto lawyer: 'I have a little bit of beef with traditional financial institutions'
Web3/Crypto
Webp irena
Irina Heaver, crypto lawyer at NeosLegal | Crypto Republique

Irina Heaver, a crypto lawyer at NeosLegal, said that banks have incurred over "$400 billion" in fines for compliance breaches and "caused the 2008 financial crisis," yet cryptocurrency is often labeled as a "scam." Heaver made this statement during her talk at Binance Blockchain Week.

"I have a little bit of beef with traditional financial institutions," said Heaver. "Banks have been breaching compliance rules and regulations for years. Just in the last 20 years, more than $400 billion of fines were imposed on banks throughout every jurisdiction. Banks caused the 2008 global financial crisis, right? And people are calling crypto projects scams or trying to give us a bad name."

According to data collected from Chainalysis and the United Nations, traditional finance accounts for over 99.97% of global money laundering activities, while cryptocurrency makes up only 0.03%.

Get the Newsletter
Sign-up to receive weekly round up of news from Crypto Republique
By submitting, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By providing your phone number you are opting in and consenting to receive recurring SMS/MMS messages, including automated texts, to that number from our short code. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to end. SMS opt-in will not be sold, rented, or shared.

A report indicates that $300 billion is laundered annually through the United States, accounting for 15-30% of all global money laundering. In 2020 alone, approximately $227.8 million was laundered in the U.S. Furthermore, the most prominent money laundering case in the U.S. involved Wachovia Bank, which facilitated illicit transactions totaling $380 billion under the guise of a drug cartel.

The report highlights enforcement challenges, noting that only 990 offenders were recorded out of 76,538 cases, illustrating significant gaps in the prosecution and tracking of money laundering activities.

Heaver is a lawyer and partner at NeosLegal with over 20 years of experience. Since 2016, she has advised more than 250 Bitcoin, crypto, and Web3 projects, focusing on token launches, fundraising, and market expansion in Dubai/UAE. She has worked with venture capitalists (VCs), investors, governments, and regulators.

Binance Blockchain Week is a conference that brings together innovators, founders, investors, regulators, and officials to discuss the future of blockchain and Web3. The theme of this year's conference is "Momentum." According to the event's website: "Momentum propels our industry, not only taking us through challenges but also leading us to our biggest achievements."

Organizations Included in this History
More News

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, said that the company enables global financial institutions to enhance cross-border payments and efficiency through digital technology.

Jul 9, 2025

Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, said that a move for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to count bitcoin as a mortgage asset signals a shift in the American Dream.

Jul 7, 2025

Binance has announced the launch of PIXEL APR Boost Airdrop Rewards for the 11th project on BNSOL Super Stake, in collaboration with Pixels (PIXEL), a web3 game on the Ronin Network.

Jul 7, 2025

Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), said that public companies increased their bitcoin holdings more rapidly than exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the second quarter.

Jul 5, 2025

CoinFlip, a global digital currency platform, has announced the launch of a new user interface for its CoinFlip Preferred service.

Jun 30, 2025

Gum Shoe, a crypto influencer, has highlighted the long wait times and high fees at Coinbase compared to better service at Binance as evidence of the need for increased competition among U.S. crypto exchanges.

Jun 23, 2025