Another blow for crypto
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, yesterday admitted to violating anti-money laundering regulations and breaking US sanctions, less than 3 weeks after 31-year-old crypto kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and conspiracy.
Treasury officials reported that nearly $900 million was transferred between American and Iranian users on the exchange, with other customers using Binance to funnel money to illicit actors involved in terrorism, cybercrime and child abuse.
As part of the settlement, Binance is set to pay a staggering $4.3 billion fine, while the company’s talisman and CEO Chengpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ, will pay a $50 million personal fine and step down from the company he founded.
Going finite
Established in 2017, Binance thrived in the crypto industry's regulatory vacuum, leading CZ to quickly become one of, if not the, most important figures in crypto. As the fuse burned down on FTX’s implosion, CZ announced that Binance was dumping its FTX tokens, though 2 days later he revealed a hastily put-together plan to rescue FTX. But upon closer inspection, Binance pulled out, FTX went down, and CZ and co. lived to fight another day.
In the wake of the chaos, Binance won more market share, with data from The Block revealing that it had more than 60% of all exchange-based crypto trading in February of this year.
The deal leaves CZ facing a potential 18-month stretch in prison, and crypto enthusiasts facing an increasingly hostile regulatory environment — Kraken, another top 5 exchange, was hit by the SEC with a lawsuit on Monday.
