Going finite: The fall of another crypto kingpin

11/21/23 7:00PM

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.

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Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind’s CEO and founder, was also an early Anthropic investor

A chess prodigy and an actual a knight of the realm in the UK, it’s perhaps no surprise that Demis Hassabis has made some strategic moves about his exposure to AI upside. According to people familiar with the matter, the influential AI architect became an angel investor in Anthropic, currently behind many of the leading AI models, per Arena AI leaderboards.

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, per the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

Google, which bought DeepMind, the company that Hassabis cofounded and heads to this day, for a reported ~$400 million in 2014, is also a key Anthropic investor. The tech giant reportedly plans to invest up to $40 billion in the AI company as part of the mutually beneficial relationship the pair have forged, with reports that Anthropic has committed to spending $200 billion in the other direction on Google’s cloud services over the next five years.

I’m playing all sides, so I always come out on top

In addition to his financial support for Anthropic, Hassabis has also invested in a range of AI startups launched by colleagues, such as Inflection AI, a company set up by DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman (who is now CEO of Microsoft AI), as well as efforts from other collaborators, like David Silver’s Ineffable Intelligence.

Hassabis also emerged as a recurring figure on the fringes of the recent Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial, cropping up repeatedly in testimonies and court documents and appearing to live, as The Verge put it, “rent-free” in Musk’s head.

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis emerges as early Anthropic investor

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, per the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

I’m playing all sides, so I always come out on top

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

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Jury rules against Musk in lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman

Jurors in Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI found the defendants not liable on all claims on Monday.

In a unanimous verdict reached after less than two hours of deliberation, the Oakland jury found that Musk had waited too long to bring his case forward, exceeding the statute of limitations.

Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

Jury tosses Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman

Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

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