Wall Street Journal has asked a federal judge to dismiss the defamation lawsuit Binance filed against it, arguing the exchange's March 2026 complaint fails to prove the newspaper acted with actual malice. The suit centres on Journal articles that characterised Binance as covering up an internal investigation, obstructing compliance and allowing sanctioned entities to trade on its platform. In its dismissal motion, the Journal said Binance's own filing did not meet the legal standard for actual malice, which requires knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth. Binance argued that it had sent the paper a denial, so the reporting was false. The Journal rejected that logic, saying a simple repetition of a self-serving denial is not enough to support a defamation claim. During the hearing, the Journal's lawyer pointed out that Binance had not contested the core content of the three articles at the centre of the case. The request was made Wednesday afternoon before a federal judge, according to Talking Biz News, which cited Courthouse News Service.
Wall Street Journal moved Wednesday afternoon to have a federal judge throw out Binance's defamation suit. The motion came in a case that grew out of the paper's reporting on the exchange's compliance problems.
The articles in question described Binance as concealing internal investigations, hindering compliance and allowing sanctioned entities to trade. Binance responded by suing. It told the court the reporting was false because Binance had already sent the Journal a denial.
The Journal's dismissal motion takes a different view. Binance's March 2026 complaint, the paper argues, never showed that the newsroom acted with actual malice when it published the stories. That standard is the legal hurdle for public-figure defamation claims.
In court, the Journal's lawyer went further. Binance, the lawyer said, had not actually denied the core content of the three articles. On that basis, a bare denial sent by the exchange, and then repeated in court, could not turn the reporting into a libel claim. The Journal called it a self-serving denial, and said repeating one is not enough.
Talking Biz News relayed the account via Courthouse News Service.
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