Australia's Federal Court has ordered Oztures Trading Pty Ltd — operating as Binance Australia Derivatives — to pay a $10 million penalty for exposing more than 500 retail investors to high-risk crypto derivative products they were legally prohibited from accessing. The penalty, handed down on 27 March 2026 by Justice Moshinsky, follows civil proceedings launched by ASIC in December 2024. Binance admitted to all alleged contraventions.
The order adds to approximately AUD $13.1 million in compensation already paid to affected clients in 2023, bringing the total cost of the classification failure to AUD $23.1 million — a significant price for a compliance system that relied, at its core, on a multiple-choice quiz clients could retake until they passed.
A Quiz You Could Retake Until You Passed
Between July 2022 and April 2023, Binance Australia Derivatives misclassified more than 85 per cent of its Australian client base as wholesale or sophisticated investors. Wholesale classification strips retail clients of legal protections that exist specifically to guard against unsuitable products: no Product Disclosure Statement, no Target Market Determination, and no compliant internal dispute resolution process.
The mechanism behind the misclassification was, in ASIC's description, remarkably simple. Clients seeking to qualify as sophisticated investors could retake a multiple-choice quiz as many times as needed until they achieved a passing score. Senior compliance staff provided inadequate oversight of applications and supporting documents. In one case, Binance approved a client who certified they were an "exempt public authority" without any verification.
These 524 misclassified retail clients then traded high-risk crypto derivatives without consumer protections. They incurred $8.66 million in trading losses and paid $3.89 million in fees across the nine-month period of misclassification.
A Licence Cancelled at the Firm's Own Request
The exposure ended only after ASIC began a targeted review of Binance's wholesale client classification process in December 2022. On 6 April 2023, rather than face a suspension or cancellation hearing, Binance Australia Derivatives requested that its own AFS licence be cancelled. ASIC obliged and simultaneously oversaw $13.1 million in compensation payments to the misclassified clients before civil proceedings began.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said: "This is a clear warning to global financial services entities looking to set up shop in Australia. All financial services companies must follow the law from day one, and have proper client onboarding systems and processes in place. This includes financial services that relate to crypto and digital assets."
Why This Case Matters Beyond Crypto
The product distribution failures ASIC identified — no PDS, no target market assessment, inadequate dispute resolution — are the same obligations that govern how CFD and forex brokers must treat retail clients in Australia. A quiz that can be retaken until the right answer appears is not a compliance check. It is a mechanism for systematically stripping retail clients of their legal protections.
The size of the firm, or the fact that its head office sits overseas, does not change the obligation. At AUD $23 million all in, Binance paid significantly less than the harm it caused. What the case establishes clearly is that Australian consumer protection law applies in full to global crypto and derivatives platforms — and that regulators are willing to pursue them to judgment.
Editor's note: Oztures Trading Pty Ltd operated as Binance Australia Derivatives, the Australian derivatives arm of the Binance Group. The firm no longer operates in Australia. The broader Binance Group continues to operate internationally. BestForex.io reached out to Binance for comment.