Bitcoin Forum

https://paxos.com/busd-transparency/

And funds are SAFU!:)!
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1625067495760560128

" We were informed by Paxos they have been directed to cease minting new BUSD by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

Paxos is regulated by NYDFS.

BUSD is a stablecoin wholly owned and managed by Paxos."

Paxos Will Halt Minting New BUSD Tokens
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/paxos-will-halt-minting-new-busd-tokens-301744964.html

WHO is Next??

USDC and the rest; maybe Tether too.
There was a tweet at some point - as an idea backing - that maybe they'll start doing stable coins that are not pegged to Dollar; although if they do peg it to at least one fiat they'll still be in trouble, see Facebook, and even if they will be pegging it to Gold or whatever, it may not be as nice an simple as you'd think (if they want to properly back a stable coin with actual gold then its storage needs to be paid).

A rather strange situation. Allegedly the SEC has labeled it as security and is suing Paxos, which, if true, was likely the reason behind NYDFS ordering them to cease issuing new tokens.

https://i.imgur.com/JNz7JbV.png
https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1624953792872718336

That's bizarre, if anything, BNB would fall much closer to being security than BUSD.

All this fits in into operation Chokepoint 2.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5439877.0) theory. Or maybe it's just a result of a geopolitic tensions between US and China, as Binance is rumoured to have quiet support of the Chinese governmet.

They will peg to the Euro, then remember they have no licenses to operate there, then to the yen, remembering how they fled Japan, for a while to the yuan till he realizes that the Jack Ma story is not that funny, a bit with the Russian ruble till he fails to fall from a  window and then maybe finally both he and the others stop using those so-called stable coins and just deals as it was supposed to be, fiat vs BTC, and not IOU notes vs script generated coins.
Just an idea, but seems pretty appealing, to me at least.


Of course, I mean what could possibly go wrong, other than the US freezing all Paxos funds with a click and deleting the backing of $16 billion of "stable" coins in an instant?
Some don't realize that the backing of this BUSD is done with US treasury bills and debt, not with a stash of cash hidden in Bahamas and guess who has the final saying over that.

I don't think USDC will get targeted by SEC because it was Circle who is file a report about the BUSD's reserved funds [1] so Circle have prepared anything in order to not got a same result like BUSD. According to the USDC's reserved funds [2], it's full of short term US Treasury Bills, not like BUSD where it's mostly about long term US Treasury Debt, so if BUSD want to de pegged to Dollar, they can't they can't directly sold the US Treasury Debt or they will suffer losses [3].

---

[1] https://blockchainreporter.net/stablecoin-issuer-circle-files-a-complaint-with-new-york-regulator-about-binances-busd/
[2] https://www.centre.io/hubfs/2022%20USDC_Circle%20Examination%20Report%20December%202022.pdf?hsLang=en
[3] https://paxos.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/BUSD-Monthly-Stablecoin-Reporting-January-2023.pdf

I think that the best use case for stable coins was arbitrage trading. For that, some sort of stable coin, preferably accepted by most exchanges, is a must.
For all the other cases, yes, the "good old" fiat would be better. For start it may deflate the market a little until only real money is in, but on long term it should be more fair.


Well 1 BUSD = 1 BUSD and people don't understand that 16 billion BUSD can become easily = 1 cent. Some might need a cold shower in order to improve their math. Sorry, I was wrong, Terra has provided that math lesson, but people have still missed the point.


Whether they've done their homework or not it doesn't matter. They still may get checked. And I've read that people started moving their funds from USDC to USDT (which imho is just as bad, or actually even worse).

But, but, 1 LUNA =1 LUNA if you don't sell, right?  :D
And no, some will never learn, and some don't want to as they don't even care about crypto, for them those stable coins are the bridge to trade, as you mentioned for arbitrage and at the same time give them a false sense of security as they can withdraw those to their wallet and think it's not like a bank when in reality is worse.


Or, a far simple version, they ratted out Binance so they will get a moment or two of peace and maybe enough time to come up with a solution.
And speaking of a solution, as mentioned above, they could go another way, they could issue stable coins in Qatari riyal, UAE dirham or Omani rial, since all of them are actually pegged to the USD,  it doesn't change anything from a user point of view.

 

SEC is a hypocrite. Why don't they start with the USDT (or USDC) first and then sue BUSD? The answer is, they don't want competition. It is OK when Binance issuing USDT like a mad man and when somebody else does it oh no suddenly it is the end of the world. Shutting BUSD would potentially harm binance and if binance gets harmed every other US crypto exchange will benefit from it.

The SEC is not a hypocrite. What the Americans cannot lead, they will break. USDC is owned by large American companies and banks: Circle, Goldman Sachs ..
USDT is probably the next candidate.
There are a lot of questions regarding Binance, who knows where this company has an office?

As to my opinion SEC is killing trust in $ in the first place. BUSD, USDT and others are finally just a coins. But their exchange rate is tied to $ directly. More or less. So that harms $ position most.

If we talk about the dollar and trust, then we need to look at the country's public debt. There is not so much money in the world, but America can print a lot of dollars, and other countries cannot do it. It is impossible not to notice that USD stablecoins are being destroyed on purpose.

True, and you'd be surprised to find out how many hope to see it also equal to 1 USD...
We both know that the only thing equal to 1 USD is 1 USD and also that its value has became smaller since I've started writing this post.
Some still believe this or that business' claims that their coin worth the same as the dollar. Yes, it does... until it's not.


Actually I think that these moves are not related to protecting American citizen, nor American businesses. I think that it's meant to pave the way for the upcoming CBDC. And that's, sorry, overly hypocrite.

Very old wisdom: "What is good for a citizen is bad for the state and vice versa".
A friend who was in Davos said that the CBDC trend is a priority and by 2026 CBDC will be in Europe, the USA, Russia, Japan and other countries. This is just the beginning. And all the crypto exchanges that remain on the market will be banks. Regulation will be the same as banks, so only the largest will survive.

Exactly. But it's not about logic, rather it's about the message and effect it may have on similar stable coins.

It's a scary development, but of course similar moves from SEC were to be expected for quite a while now. I'd guess this is just the beginning of a huge crackdown on crypto with a shift towards official, centralized government-friendly organizations ruling over stable-shitcoins.

That's correct. It's an unfortunate reality we should not deny.
While the migration to bitcoin standard would have been much more beneficial for the citizen, ... that old wisdom you posted tells the story.
So we'll get CBDCs. However, as you said, the largest, the "fittest" will survive. And we know that the current stable coins are not so fit and, excepting Tether, they're not large either. So.. I don't see why they're bashing them already... unless they really want to implement into CBDCs all the bad features we're afraid of and we're talking about every time CBDCs come into discussion (full control of the state on people's money, from history of transactions to seizing the funds from inside people's wallets). And then no sane individual would touch those. Something doesn't seem to add up...

Exactly my thoughts on the entire matter. They just want to get rid of competition before unleashing the horror of their dictatorial digital currency. What they unfortunately have no realized is how futile their attempts will be since we already have Bitcoin. And they will not be able to destroy Bitcoin or its value. Anybody with an IQ higher than room temperature knows this and will not give up their Bitcoin over some pseudo-crypto that the government quickly put together out of panic because their current monetary system is being effectively attacked by Bitcoin and even altcoins...

Very attractive to me too, this is the idea that inspired the invention of bitcoin I think.

Linking cryptocurrencies to any other stablecoin or fiat will not solve the problem, but rather will divert the problem to another direction and create a new one.

The only solution is to disengage from the dollar, fiat as a whole, or any stable coin, and link to a decentralized coin that is not controlled by anyone and is not subject to any party, state, or economy, as if I am talking about Bitcoin??!!!

The idea seems very difficult at the moment, but I am confident that it will be realized in the future.

Does anyone know why SEC involve in blockchain? Why shouldn't the US open a new organization to work on regulated btc instead? Is it good to apply the rule from the stock market to blockchain?

I don't expect the SEC to have much impact on Binance. Binance could easily move to the right jurisdiction and issue a new stablecoin with ratio 1:1 to busd. Or take other steps. there are games just behind the scenes right now

Binance already operates in multiple jurisdictions, so it's not like they would have to move. But potentially losing access to the entire US crypto market would be a huge blow.
Regarding BUSD, I think they'd have to ditch Paxos and find a new issuer. As things are now, Paxos could still operate with already issued BUSD tokens, but not being able to issue any new ones, means stifling the growth of that market for Binance. And I don't imagine it would be practical to have two different issuers/operators of the same token.
But, at the end of the day, they could also just ditch BUSD altogether and replace it with some other existing stablecoin that SEC/NYDFS don't (yet) have a problem with.

Which is why it's the dumbest idea to make a gold stablecoin, or any precious metal stablecoin for that matter. ::) The minters are not even guaranteed to have liquidity in the first place, and usually they don't anyway. It's not like anyone's going to go back to Bretton Woods agreement any time soon.

So you don't understand what's going on. I think the CEC and other organizations in the US have a lot of leverage to force Binance not to issue new stablecoins. Stablecoins are not needed because governments want to force citizens to use CBDC.

Gold-backed tokens have been around for a while, i.e. Pax Gold: https://paxos.com/paxgold/
They don't have to set up any storage themselves, but would rather use trustworthy, reputable, and much cheaper 3rd parties like Swiss banks, or, in the case of Pax Gold - LBMA (London-based precious metals authority).

Not sure how they generate a profit on that though, probably it's just initial issuance and redemption fees, so much less attractive than fiat-based stablecoins, where most of the profit would be generated from interest on clients' deposits.

I agree with this one, I mean this was basically a US Dollar not an investment. BNB and other coin like XRP is much closer. SEC seems hate very much about crypto industry since its very hard to regulate all of them.

---

This is CZ biggest mantra that funds are safu I just opened Paxos Report and most of the money was in the form of US Treasury Bills Well if this true I think the money are safe but they cant redeem all of it in one time, right? [Report : https://paxos.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/BUSD-Daily-Stablecoin-Reporting-as-of-2.16.2023-1.pdf]

And Lastly, in my opinion if BUSD/Paxos was won maybe SEC would stop chasing other stablecoin but if they lose they will come to other stablecoin and we might see little bit shaking in the market.

Not 100% sure, but usually there would be some option to cash in bonds before they mature with some small penalty. Or, most likely, US treasuries can be just traded on the open market. Some of the RRPs have maturity dates as late as 2049, there's no way they would hard-lock any funds for that long without an option to terminate early.
So Paxos should be able to service any withdrawal/conversion requests in a relatively short time if it comes to that.

Agree us treasuries cant be traded early but the price might fluctuate. and yeah I also believe that they might think about that too. for now, CZ said that busd can be redeemed to original dollar. and I hope everything will settle again I don't hope another fud happen  :D

Well, there are people fond of gold, people who want to use gold-equivalent coins. Many see it as a store of value, some even more than bitcoin. I won't debate whether they're right or wrong.
At some point in the past I was advertising one such stable coin and... they were charging their users for that storage (!), it was part of the business model.

But, yes, we're on the same page: the logistics of reimbursing in case such a coin/business collapses may be pretty complicated (as you said, liquidity...)


If they don't store the gold, they have to pay to those storing and guarding it.
And the profit? May come from various operational fees they take, may come (sooner or later) from playing with fractional reserve, .. I've never heard of anybody who's issuing money to be (or stay) poor  :D

Fud is an inseparable part of the crypto ecosystem. I don't think we've ever seen any few months period without bigger or smaller fud going on.
As for Binance, it really starting to look like US regulators are set on not letting them grow too big.
But if they can handle moving away from Paxos smoothly, it would add to their credibility, and to Paxos' as well.


Sure but the costs of them paying for storage are much lower than if they were to store it themselves.
And yup, looks like they're charging some small fees on each on-chain transaction. From their whitepaper:

They will keep spreading fud until they are heavily invested like everyone else does

One of the possible scenarios:
The US government is forcing all crypto exchanges to buy US bonds with customer dollars.
As soon as crypto exchanges have a huge portfolio of bonds, a huge FUD is created in the market.
The US government is buying back its bonds at a huge discount, the price of cryptocurrencies is falling. Stablecoins are losing their peg to the dollar.

Not too suprising given the almost monopoly-standing of Binance right now, especially given the fact it is not a US company but (in a way) a Chinese one.
I think this will repeat with other unregulated exchanges that are going to rise to or near the top. Unless of course you play buddy-buddy with big corps, as FTX did. On a side note: funny how news about FTX almost seem to have seized to exist.

Back to topic. It's very clear that regulators are trying to stop unregulated (stable) coins, the question is: Will/can they ever succeed?

It is, binace is trying too monopoly before FTX collapse it want to acquired too. and binance is already acquired - Indonesian Crypto Trading Firm Tokocrypto (https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/12/19/binance-finalizes-acquisition-of-indonesian-crypto-trading-firm-tokocrypto/)  ;D

I dont know when SEC stop regulating crypto I thinks is Imposible if they want to try regulated all of them

Sam Bankman-Fried was a hired hand or a useful idiot for a specific list of tasks. CZ is much smarter than Sam Bankman-Fried and doesn't want to be a useful idiot.
SEC will regulate all crypto projects and say who is bad and who is good.

CZ’s (https://www.binance.com/en/blog/from-cz/czs-response-to-the-cftc-complaint-2408916493005890282) Response to the CFTC Complaint
Today, the CFTC filed an unexpected and disappointing civil complaint, despite our working cooperatively with the CFTC for over two years.

Upon an initial review, the complaint appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts, and we do not agree with the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the complaint. While we will only be able to give full responses in due time, we will address a few key points below.

Good for him for a quick and detailed response, but the effort is probably futile.
At this point, the message is pretty clear, US want to chase Binance of their market (or maybe from other markets in countries under US influence). Possibly only as part of the wider crack down on crypto, or maybe as an element of USA Vs China game of economical dominance.

The way it looks like, doesn't matter what Binance will do in terms of compliance. They'll always find a way to hit them.

Regardless of the political goals behind what is happening, it cannot be denied that Binance has made a fatal mistake if the allegations are proven.
America may not be able to stop Binance activity in its allied countries, given that Binance has become a global monopol (after the fall of the Ftx stock exchange), but it may deprive it of activity in the American market, and it is not excluded that binance.us will be completely stopped, or at least strict monitoring measures will be imposed on it.

I studied the allegations. The exchange is accused of all mortal sins, up to the financing of terrorist organizations. This is no longer a violation of the rules of trade, for which a fine is due.
The implications for Binance, its subsidiaries and CZ are severe. All companies that work with them are at risk of falling under sanctions and criminal prosecution.
What are the conclusions from this against the backdrop of the bankruptcy of large banks working with cryptocurrency projects? The regulator closes the gateways for exchanging cryptocurrencies for money.
It is likely that the regulator also has similar charges against other exchanges, but they have not yet been presented.

Binance, CZ (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/binance-nba-star-jimmy-butler-155445950.html?), and NBA star Jimmy Butler and other crypto influencers hit with $1B suit for promoting unregistered securities
Just four days after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought a highly-publicized suit against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is facing another high-profile legal challenge.
Late on the evening of March 31, the Moskowitz Law Firm and Boies Schiller Flexner, home to super-attorney David Boies, filed a class action suit that targets Binance, its founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ)—the world’s leading spokesman for the crypto industry—and hoops star Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/jane-street-tower-research-and-radix-are-binance-s-vip-clients-in-cftc-suit-report
"Trading firms Jane Street Group, Tower Research Capital and Radix Trading have been reportedly identified as Binance’s three “VIP” clients that were anonymously cited in the recent lawsuit filed against Binance by the United States commodities regulator.

According to an April 5 Bloomberg report citing “people familiar with the matter,” Radix Trading is “Trading Firm A” as described in the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) suit, while Jane Street was “Trading Firm B” and Tower Research was “Trading Firm C.”

The firms on the CFTC’s list were examples of U.S. clients allegedly able to access Binance.
It was part of a strategy that “actively facilitated violations of U.S. law” by helping U.S. trading firms evade Know Your Customer compliance standards, among other things, the CFTC alleged.

Binance allegedly enabled Radix to sidestep compliance controls by providing them information on accessing Binance.com through a virtual private network to obscure its IP address."

MR Binance Australia Derivatives (https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2023-releases/23-091mr-binance-australia-derivatives-afs-licence-cancelled/) AFS licence cancelled

with effect from 14 April 2023, clients will not be able to increase derivatives positions or open new positions with Binance;
Binance will require clients to close any existing derivative positions before 21 April 2023;
on 21 April 2023, Binance will close any remaining open positions.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/binances-us-arm-struggles-bank-140127369.html

"(Reuters) -The U.S. arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance is struggling to find a bank to handle its customers' cash after the failure of Signature Bank last month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Previously, the deposits were sent to either Signature Bank or Silvergate Capital Corp, both seen as crypto-friendly banks. However, after both failed, the exchange is rushing to find a new banking partner, according to the report.

Binance.US is using at least one intermediary to store funds, the report said, adding that since the money is being held by a third party, it can slow down sending and moving funds.

The company has unsuccessfully tried to establish relationships with Cross River Bank and Customers Bancorp Inc, the report said, adding that banks are reluctant due to concerns over regulatory risk."
___
American banks now know who has a black mark from the CFTC.

Important events in this conflict

Washington D.C., June 5, 2023
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-101
"SEC Files 13 Charges Against Binance Entities and Founder Changpeng Zhao
Charges include operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies; misrepresenting trading controls and oversight on the Binance.US platform; and the unregistered offer and sale of securities."

Binance Answer
https://www.binance.com/en/blog/ecosystem/sec-complaint-aims-to-unilaterally-define-crypto-market-structure-8707489117122437402
SEC Complaint Aims to Unilaterally Define Crypto Market Structure

SEC motion to freeze assets of BAM Management US Holdings Inc. and BAM Trading Services Inc.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.256060/gov.uscourts.dcd.256060.4.0.pdf

https://tokenist.com/sec-files-emergency-motion-to-freeze-binance-us-assets/
SEC Files Emergency Motion to Freeze Binance.US’ Assets

____
https://support.binance.us/hc/en-us/articles/15133607064983-Binance-US-Will-Remove-Select-Trading-Pairs-Has-Paused-OTC-Trading
Binance.US Will Remove 10 Trading Pairs & Has Paused OTC Trading (Updated)

"Binance lawyers allege SEC Chair Gensler offered to serve as advisor to crypto company in 2019
According to a new filing from Binance's lawyers, SEC Chair Gary Gensler offered to be an advisor to the crypto exchange in 2019.
At the time, Gensler was teaching at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.
Gensler has been cracking down on the crypto industry over the past year, and earlier this week sued Binance.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who is in the midst of a hefty crackdown on crypto companies, offered to serve as an advisor to Binance’s parent company in 2019, according to the lawyers for Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao."
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/07/binance-lawyers-say-sec-chair-gensler-offered-to-be-advisor-in-2019.html

Lol. Gensler is such a weasel. It's almost fascinating how he is able to keep spouting all his nonsense with a straight face and conviction, like some sort of sociopath.
By the way, has it been confirmed that he personally knew the father of Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda (sister company of FTX) or was it just rumours?

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/08/secs-gensler-rebuffs-crypto-complaints-says-gave-ample-warning-heat-was-coming/
"Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, delivered a speech explaining his thinking after hammering Coinbase and Binance in back-to-back actions."
“Some promoters of crypto asset securities contend that their token has a function beyond simply being an investment vehicle,” Gensler said in remarks prepared for the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference, delivered in the same week his agency brought major enforcement actions against Coinbase (COIN) and Binance, accusing respectively the U.S.’s and the world’s largest crypto exchanges of trading in unregistered securities.
“Some additional utility does not remove a crypto asset security from the definition of an investment contract,” Gensler said, though he added that tokens built for exclusive use in their blockchain ecosystems can be exempted from such accusations. “The investing public generally buys these crypto assets, at least in part, anticipating profit based on the efforts of those token issuers.”

Now I see SEC vs Binance, if I have answer on my question in SEC vs Coinbase thread, I will use it for this because they are related and same nature. The suit ought to be SEC VS Binance, Coinbase and Ors;

And if this allegation is trues, the whole issue can be something of witch hunt you know?.

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/14/binances-cyprus-unit-under-examination-for-deregistration-as-crypto-service-provider/
Binance Seeks to Withdraw Cyprus' Unit Crypto Service Registration
The world's largest crypto exchange won registration as a crypto asset service provider (CASP) in Cyprus in October last year.
"We are working hard to prepare our business to be fully compliant with MiCA when it is implemented in the next 18 months," a Binance spokesperson said in an email to CoinDesk.
___
Binance hopes that they will come to an agreement with the regulator in Europe and become one of the major crypto exchanges there, because they are being deprived of a lot of income in the United States.

Although the news seems contradictory at first sight, since Cyprus is in Europe (and their legal currency is the EURO), what I eventually understand is that they are deregistering there so they can focus on fewer regulated entities in the eurozone. But they don't say where they'll be heading now.

Portugal is a well known crypto friendly jurisdiction here in Europe because capital gains on cryptos don't pose a taxable event in said country, but if I'm not wrong this is going to change anytime soon, so I'm curious about the future strategy of the exchange (not because I'm worried about their future, but out of mere curiosity on how these decisions are made).

And why waste time on one country if the MICA law has already been signed and will work. In 18 months there will be a single law for all of Europe, and until that time, laws may differ in different European countries. In Portugal, everything is fine, but they will be required to work in 18 months under the new law.
But will Europe let CZ into its market?

Binance is about to start its' business at Republic of Georgia. They are hiring personnel. Name itself could outrage Gensler on top of the fact he himself explained on CNBC chanell as :m/2023/06/06/sec-chair-gensler-doubts-the-need-for-more-digital-currency.html] "We already have digital currency! Which is digital Dollar and digital Euro." (https://www.c[Suspicious link removed) Fight with Binance goes on... Winner takes it all? I'm about to move to Georgia (the Country, not the State) in a month from here. Would like to take active participation in the whole process  ::)

That's a big question. The US has a pretty big influence on most European countries, but it's not like they have complete control over them. And probably subject of crypto trading is not of any major strategic importance, so maybe they won't be expanding their crypto crack-down outside of the US.
If I remember correctly, the most recent opinions of EU on crypto were not very friendly, and Binance had to block certain features for its UK customers (as well as well to stop supporting GBP deposits/withdrawals), so I'm not very optimistic here, but wish Binance all the best.

Georgia is not a big country and there is a small population. This is a very small market for a large exchange, although Georgia has good crypto legislation.

At the last conference I watched, bankers and businessmen were talking about blockchain-based digital assets that have value. This will provide more opportunities for development and earnings.

I don't fully agree with you pawel7777: although as western economic powers it is logical that they are similar in many aspects, and North-American cultural influence over Europe is undeniable (but let's don't forget that vice versa also), there are many economic, social and political conflicting interests between them, and that's the reason why the UK left the EU (Brexited), because their interests fit better with the Commonwealth's than with the Union's.

So I think that you are mixing things up, and if Binance's way is eventually blocked in Europe I don't think it will be due to the influence of the US.

I'm very curious about the answer to zasad@'s question too, but we'll have to be patient until time tells and make decisions accordingly.

https://fortune.com/crypto/2023/06/16/binance-europe-france-investigation-money-laundering-netherlands-vasp-license-withdrawal/
Binance loses footing in Europe as French prosecutors investigate exchange and Netherlands denies license application
"On Friday, French newspaper Le Monde reported that prosecutors were investigating the company’s branch in France for violating the country’s anti–money-laundering laws. The investigation concerns Binance’s allegedly illegal operations as a digital assets provider as well as “aggravated money laundering,” a spokesperson for the SEJF, the French governmental agency responsible for investigating financial crimes, told Fortune in a statement.
That same day, Binance announced that it was leaving the Netherlands after the Dutch regulatory agency did not approve the exchange’s application to become a VASP, or virtual asset services provider."

The response from European regulators has been swift and such allegations will prevent the exchange from operating in Europe.

News is not readable (it is paid) but I suppose that the headline is enough to understand what has happened. In Spain, Binance recently registered and got whitelisted by the Banco de España, but if they are starting to have problems in France (and the Netherlands) now, it does not bode well for when a single regulation for Europe is implemented.

Still a long way to go, and things can change in the meantime, so uncertainty is high, but yes, a change in trend is intuited.

This is the original in French
https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2023/06/16/binance-principale-plate-forme-mondiale-d-echange-de-cryptomonnaies-visee-par-une-enquete-en-france_6177876_4408996.html

Of course, if large countries in Europe begin to block Binance, then other countries will suspend the existing licenses of the exchange. Although the Binance exchange has a lot of money, they will not be able to fight with all the regulators in the US and Europe.

Of course, different countries have different interests, but strong countries always have some power to impose their will onto weaker ones. The Russian-Ukraine war is a good example, it was obvious that Germany and France initially were pushing for peace talks and were hoping for things to return back to normal, but that wasn't in line with US's goals. To make their arguments more convincing, US blew up Nordstream 2 baltic pipe, sending a message to Germany that going back to old ways of buying gas from Russia is no longer an option.
I'm not saying that Europe is totally controlled by the US, but it's undeniable that the US has been pretty effective in forcing their way in the most important issues.

So the question is what's the real reason behind the crypto crackdown. i.e. if they decided that crypto is a major threat to their financial system, then they won't allow the crypto industry to just move and bloom in other countries. Plus, even without US pressure, other countries could come to the same conclusion and start seeing crypto as a threat.

If Germany and France refuse the shower raw materials that they bought in Russia. If Germany refuses nuclear energy, then this indicates an imminent economic crisis in these countries.
___

Binance, SEC strike deal to keep US customer assets in country
https://www.reuters.com/technology/urgent-binance-sec-strike-deal-move-all-us-customer-funds-wallet-keys-back-2023-06-17/

___
Any deal or agreement is already at least a small chance for cooperation and the start of negotiations. Until criminal cases are opened, the parties to the conflict can find a compromise.

That's some positive news indeed, as otherwise Binance US operations would get completely destroyed. But not sure if we should read this as SEC softening their stance and looking for compromise, as Binance, in their tweet, referred to it as a "Court-ordered agreement". So it could be that the court forced SEC into accepting that agreement, rather then it resulting from SEC's good will.

Here's what Binance themselves had to say about that:

https://twitter.com/BinanceUS/status/1670077275419869186

What does this statement really mean?
What is ordinary course business in this context.
Doesn't it mean normal trading and other things but not related to staking and other activities why SEC classified them as securities?

The fight between Binance and the sec had been calmed down by the judge that decided not to listen to the sec opinion to freeze the Binance US account. A lot had happened and I know that the US citizens will not be happy if Binance was sanctioned and finally leave the state. Since it is a good news for Binance US to go about there business and the SEC to cut out there allegetion against Binance and to refine a suitable process that will enable her to work on there lapses and stick the rules to enhance a friendly atmosphere.

That means that their funds won't get frozen and they will continue to operate, i.e. conduct their normal operations. Of course, I imagine that will all the panic probably most of the US customers decided to withdraw (you can't blame them), so the level of activity of Binance US is probably just a fraction of what it used to be. But at least they can carry on trading until the court rules otherwise.

That is a great news. I almost misunderstood the statement because of the clause of ordinary course business used in the statement. I know Binance has lost a handful of US based customers but it is only just for a while and they will return to Binance.
We can also see that the market is green, should we attribute it to this news?

https://protos.com/scoop-european-states-working-with-sec-on-binance-investigation/
"Police and financial regulators in several European countries are collaborating with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to unravel more information on Binance, sources close to the matter told Protos.

The SEC has been soliciting information on Binance’s activities from several European nation-states for some time and a number of them have been spurred into action after the exchange was indicted by the SEC and accused of commingling funds earlier this month.

Other European authorities are still in the process of assessing the complexity of Binance’s case and are yet to comply with the SEC’s requests for information."

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/binance-markets-limited-deregisters-with-the-uks-fca/
Binance Deregisters in the UK, Expediting Its EU Exodus

__
The regulator kicks the Binance exchange from the US and European markets.Binance US will not be able to operate in the US without the support of the main company.

Binance.US Market Share  (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/binance-us-market-share-drops-202201844.html) Drops to 1.5% in Wake of SEC Crackdown
"Binance.US now accounts for only 1.5% of the total weekly trading volume among US crypto exchanges, down from 8.2% at the beginning of the year and its peak of 22% in late March, according to data from Kaiko.

The sharp decline comes as Binance.US battles a number of challenges: its banking and payments partners are cutting off support, its liquidity is drying up and customers have been withdrawing funds from the platform.

“So what we are seeing here is sort of the collapse of Binance.US,” said Clara Medalie, director of research at Kaiko, in an analyst call Tuesday. “Can Binance.US survive in a post-SEC world? I think the jury is still out on that, but looking at the data, I think it’s very unlikely.”"

https://www.coinspeaker.com/binance-us-legal-team-sec/
Binance.US and Its Legal Team Allege SEC Issued Misleading Statements in Lawsuit
"In a motion filed on June 21, Binance.US claimed the SEC has no evidence that the crypto exchange commingled users’ funds.If approved by the judge, the motion could prevent the SEC from making certain statements in public as Binance allege they would lead to market confusion.

“The SEC’s press release also appears to be designed to introduce unwarranted confusion into the marketplace, which could have the effect of harming BAM customers rather than protecting them. It also risks tainting the jury pool with misleading descriptions of the evidence concerning the Defendants,” Binance noted."

Someone on our local board posted a question on whether or not Binance will be in position to counter-sue SEC i.e. for defamation and reputational losses given SEC allegedly made a serious of accusations without any real evidence.
Anyone heard of any case where SEC got sued for something like that and lost?

I'd imagine, if that's a possibility at all, Binance would have to have all the charges officially dropped by the court first, but I'm just guessing.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/binance-hires-former-justice-department-183540600.html
(Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance Holdings Ltd., has hired a former white-collar prosecutor at the Department of Justice to represent the firm in the Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit, according to a court filing on Thursday.

Binance is under pressure in many countries
https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-scrutiny-in-brazil-as-government-demands-executive-testimony
Binance faces scrutiny in Brazil, exec summoned to testify before Congress
This development comes amid a global regulatory crackdown on Binance, which is facing investigations in multiple countries.

As long as there is no cryptocurrency legislation in the US, this shit will continue. Only it is not clear what the law will be, on the basis of a judicial precedent or on the basis of a decision of Congress.

FSMA orders Binance to cease immediately all offers of virtual currency services in Belgium (https://www.fsma.be/en/news/fsma-orders-binance-cease-immediately-all-offers-virtual-currency-services-belgium)
The FSMA has noted that Binance is offering and providing exchange services in Belgium between virtual currencies and legal currencies, as well as custody wallet services, from countries that are not members of the European Economic Area. The FSMA has therefore ordered Binance to cease, with immediate effect, offering or providing any and all such services in Belgium.

https://coinmarketcap.com/headlines/news/binance-austria-withdraws-license-application/
Crypto exchange Binance has withdrawn its license application with the Financial Market Authority of Austria, according to FinanceFWD.

"We are unable to share details of our conversations with regulators, however we remain committed to acting in compliance with our obligations wherever Binance operates," a Binance spokesperson told The Block when contacted to comment on FinanceFWD's report on the withdrawn Austrian application. "Our current focus in Europe is on ensuring that we will be in full compliance with the requirements of MiCA [Markets in Cryptoassets] when it is implemented at the end of next year."

Binance Crypto Custody License Application Denied by German Regulator BaFin (https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/29/binance-crypto-custody-license-application-denied-by-german-regulator-bafin-report/)

Germany's financial watchdog has decided not to grant crypto exchange Binance a custody license, news publication Finance Forward reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report added that it's unclear if the denial was a formal decision from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) or an intention expressed in ongoing discussions.

This is never possible since the sec is the one that is in charge of exchange and other firm regulations. Instead of Binance to sue SEC, the reverse will be the case. This is not a joking matter and if that eventually happens, there will be a problem for Binance in the future because the SEC would look for pay back to cripples the activities and the presence of Binance in the United States.

Binance can kindly over look the suit and amend there waysin the rightful manners in case there is any way they are breaching the law. The battle between Binance and the SEC is going to take a long time, that is if Garry still remains the president. Binance is just an exchange that is providing her services to the United States citizens and the SEC has the right to question the for any wrong doing.

So? That doesn't grant them any immunity from lawsuits. They still have to operate within the boundaries of the law, and when they overstep their authority or act in a negligent way causing harm (whether financial or other), they should be held accountable.

Quick google search return me these:
1) SEC sued for ‘inexcusable acts of negligence’
https://www.investmentnews.com/sec-sued-for-inexcusable-acts-of-negligence-35199
2) U.S. SEC wrongly collected $14.9 billion from defendants: lawsuit
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sec-lawsuit-idUSKBN1CW2YT

So it's definitely possible to sue them.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/binance-market-share-takes-regulatory-hit-its-us-affiliate-shrinks-2023-07-05/
"July 5 (Reuters) - The market share of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its U.S. affiliate have shrank this year, as they battle an onslaught of regulatory crackdowns.

Last month, Binance was hit by a lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly breaching the regulator's rules, pushing its global market share to 52% from 60% at the start of the year, according to data firm Kaiko.

Binance had begun to cede market share in March after its move to end zero-fees transactions for some trading pairs, said Dessislava Aubert, an analyst at Kaiko.

"Binance's market share has gone to a variety of exchanges with Bybit and OKX faring best," Aubert said."

Binance Executives Exit (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-06/binance-executive-patrick-hillmann-us-employees-leave-as-crisis-deepens) as the Regulatory Heat on the Largest Crypto Exchange Intensifies
"The billionaire founder of crypto’s biggest exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. sought to defend the platform following the exits of executives who had been helping the company navigate a widening regulatory crisis.
Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao said “we continue to BUILD, and continue to hire” in a tweet on Friday after Binance’s chief strategy officer, general counsel and a compliance official departed, stirring fresh questions about the outlook for an exchange that’s facing probes in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific."

So things are really looking worse and worse everyday for Binance, they keep getting bashed from every side. We have reports of massive net outflows of customers' funds (which is understandable), but what puzzles me is how come Binance's proof of funds does not seem to reflect the situation at all:
https://www.binance.com/en/proof-of-reserves
It's showing snapshots of customers'/exchange's balances at the 1st of each month, and comparing BTC and USDT balances at 1 July with balances at 1 Feb (before all the drama started), the customers' funds actually went up. ETH balances went down compared to Feb, but are still higher than at 1 April. This doesn't make much sense to me, or maybe I'm just missing something here.

Binance continues to be one of the major exchanges and there is no replacement yet. This exchange has a lot of problems, but the exchange has a lot of liquidity in many cryptocurrencies, so it is preferred by large traders. This exchange will not leave the crypto market, and the problems will end. Binance has a good market share in countries other than the US and Europe.

Probably the profits that they are getting out outflow to their proof of reserves that's why the funds are not going down, but instead continue to increase by the day. And maybe if there are customers leaving their platform, their could be some newbies joining them as well. So it's balance everything or their could be more customers joining them in return.

The thing with Binance is that they are on top of the food chain, so it's hard to topple them as they are very strong and CZ will not just give up the fight here.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-withdraws-crypto-license-germany
Binance has withdrawn its cryptocurrency custody license application in Germany. The exchange confirmed its withdrawal to Cointelegraph on July 26, nearly a month after reports of rejections from The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

On June 29, BaFin reportedly rejected the crypto exchange’s custody license. However, at the time, it was unclear whether the regulator officially denied Binance’s application or if it verbally informed the company. However, Binance has now confirmed that it has formally withdrawn its license application.

A spokesperson from Binance told Cointelegraph that it intends to re-apply for a license in Germany, with changes to its application reflecting the changes in the regulatory environment:

“Binance confirms that it has proactively withdrawn its BaFin application. The situation, both in the global market and regulation, has changed significantly. Binance still intends to apply for appropriate licensing in Germany, but it is essential that our submission accurately reflects these changes.“

What changes we are talking about? Was it about Binance legal opression only or is it wider in the sense of crypto-movement?

Perhaps it was due to the crypto movement, government or regulators might be broadening their rules as to how exchanges should work. Specially that EU is very tough regarding the whole KYC procedure.

Or maybe the way Binance and the rest of crypto exchanges handles the account and the customers money and if it really SAFU. This is just how I see, just my personal opinion as to why Binance has to withdraw and maybe do some reconstruction so that the next time they apply, chances are high for them to get approval.

I have only one explanation. While the Binance exchange is under attack in all countries, and in European countries, all countries are transitioning to the application of the MICA law, and in a year and a half, all countries of the European Union will have uniform legislation. Most likely, the exchange plans to wait out the hard times, working in other countries, and then try again to get a license to work throughout Europe according to the MICA law.

And meanwhile Binance assets and user deposits there both will go down isn't it?

"Waiting out the hard times" implies it's Binance's decision to withdraw from those markets, while everything looks like they are being pushed out. And if they are - I don't think MICA or any other regulations would help them to come back. If countries don't want Binance around (i.e. because it might be associated with the Chinese political agenda) they'll always find a way to keep them out.

user210822,pawel7777 If it is very simple to explain, then try to understand what the Binance exchange has been doing in recent years in the US and European countries.
Binance created firms such as Binance US, but in reality the exchange was not very interested in where their customers came from and gave everyone the opportunity to trade on their main exchange with huge liquidity. The laws were observed formally and this is a big slap in the face of financial regulators. Binance obtains licenses in other countries, and all of its clients will work there, but through other jurisdictions.

Binance is facing many issues with the regulators not just in the USA but globally. Recently if you heard that Binance limits withdrawals in Europe, cites payment processor issues (https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-limits-withdrawals-in-europe), due to their issues with Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

This is not good for binance at all as people will lose their trust in this exchange. Also, i think the SEC want to bring this exchange down and slowly and steadily they are moving towards their goal.

Many people are saying that bitcoin has not seen its all-time low for this bear market and perhaps the Binance collapse may take bitcoin below 15K. Even if it does not happen, then for sure after the bull market in 2024/2025, there may be anytime where the binance collapse could trigger the next bear market. Who knows what's coming up  ???

It really does look like a coordinated effect of "the West" to cripple Binance and not let them dominate the crypto industry globally. All the troubles dropping on them almost at the same time cannot be a coincidence.
And they're not getting any break, further bad news came from Mastercard, who ended up their partnership with Binance in the Latin America:
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/mastercard-binance-end-crypto-card-partnership-2023-08-24/

In Russia, Binance also has problems, and they removed the most popular Russian cards from the P2P exchange because these banks are under sanctions.
The positive aspect of all these events and the redistribution of influence in the market is that cryptocurrency will live, although subject to very serious regulations in many countries. Cryptocurrency is not banned and has become a small part of the financial world, but regulators want to tighten their control.

The Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday filed a sealed motion in its case against Binance that includes more than 35 exhibits.
A new secret court filing related to Binance, the crypto exchange that already faces U.S. accusations of wrongdoing, has some wondering whether more bad news is about to hit the industry giant.
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/08/29/secs-secret-binance-court-filing-has-observers-bracing-for-bad-news/

Someone on twitter X posted a nice summary and a timeline of all major Binance troubles since December last year.
https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling/status/1699135859885236432

https://i.ibb.co/ZzWMBC2/F5-SKMHf-XEAA5-km.png (https://ibb.co/Wvg2k1V)

Considering all the above, Binance seems to be still holding pretty strong. The price of BNB got some beating, but it's still safe as a No.3 crypto (excl. USDT).

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/09/18/i-just-want-to-keep-things-moving-judge-makes-no-ruling-in-sec-binance-document-dispute/
"A U.S. judge declined to order Binance.US to make its executives more available for depositions, or for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to back down in its demands for more documents during a hearing Monday.
Rather, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui urged the two parties to work on the various discovery requests together, asking the SEC to narrow its request for information but allowing it to depose certain shard holders to establish whether Binance.US’s funds are safe. The crypto exchange, a branch of the global Binance entity, should share more information about its relationship with Ceffu, its service provider, he said.
“I’m not going to order from the bench right now that they produce or not produce things. Let’s continue to try to work this out,” he said. “I just want to keep things moving.”"

Agreed, CZ's fingers 4 fud appear to be working by making the community calm and not make panic withdrawals from Binance hehehe. Also, all cryptocoins had their own dumps that have occured to them, it is not only BNB.

I shake my head on these people who cheer when Binance is banned from a certain jurisdiction. If a government can ban Binance, it would also be very easy to ban any exchange from their jurisdictions. Would this not bring back and delay the cryptospace for another 10 years? Who would make markets if all centralized exchanges are banned? This will be worse for Bitcoin than Ethereum because Ethereum is widely used as gas and currency for trading in DeFi.

I haven't seen many people cheering for governments' actions against Binance. Overall, their reputation in the crypto industry was probably the best out of all centralised exchanges. Of course, there are always some orthodox bitcoiners rooting against anything centralised or crypto-related.
And I've said it before and will say it again - I think all the actions are specifically targeted at Binance, not in entire crypto-industry. There's simply no way the US (or the so-called West) would allow a Chinese company to absolutely dominate the industry, not without a fight.

@pawel7777. There is a few of them in social media, however, they always appear to hate CZ, KYC and centralized exchanges as a whole. I am not arguing that CZ is not a clown and a hustler but it is head scratching to witness them to want uncle Gary to be victorious in putting CZ in prison. This is also funny because this will not be good for the cryptospace. This will set another precedent that if target no.1 is finished, who will be target no.2 and 3? This might only be the beginning if CZ does not fight the lawsuits filed against him and Binance.

Many people are feeling indifferent and probably unconcerned about this Binance and SEC battle. If such a legal batle happens between the government and any arm of the crypto industry, the crypto enthusiasts will always rally round their own and support them. But why the case of CZ and Binance is different is because many people are not inlove with the activities of Binance and his smart move of dominace in the crypto industry. A vast majority do not like anything about  CEX generally, as such they felt the battle is against CZ and not the crypto at large.
But I tell you, if Binace bleeds, the market will surely be bloody as well, believe me on this. And if it eventually happens any moment, bull run may not accompany this circle's halving.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/the-worlds-biggest-crypto-firm-is-melting-down/ar-AA1hhv3b
"Binance now handles about half of all trades where cryptocurrencies are directly bought and sold, down from about 70% at the start of the year, according to data provider Kaiko.

What happens to Binance will have immense implications for the crypto industry because the exchange is so big. Industry players and watchers say other exchanges would fill the void if Binance were to collapse. But in the short term, liquidity in the market could evaporate, driving the price of tokens sharply down."

but do not forget that the US Department of Justice is still investigating the Binance exchange and the main charges and fines have not yet been brought.

I have already known this and that is why I advocate that people should stop spreading FUD against Binance. I understand that many people do not like CZ and his binance but we should manage the situation because if anything happens Binance, it will affect the larger crypto industry.
As bitcoin is to cryptocurrency, that is how Binance is to CEXs. Many are afraid of Binance dominance of the market and yet it is happening right in our presence.

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3242298/us-justice-department-seeking-more-us4-billion-binance-end-criminal-case
"US Justice Department is seeking more than US$4 billion from Binance to end criminal case
Negotiations between the Justice Department and Binance include the possibility that its founder Changpeng Zhao would face criminal charges in the US
The agreement seeks to strike a balance that would allow Binance to continue operating, rather than risk a collapse that could cause negative fallout for markets

However, Binance would likely be expected to pay more than US$4 billion, which would be one of the largest-ever penalties in a criminal cryptocurrency case."
____
The US government wants to return the money that Binance took from American hamsters :)

Just in case, I will withdraw all funds from there. I feel restless somehow reading the latest news

Recent events are just crazy!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/binance-founder-changpeng-zhao-steps-down-pleads-guilty/ar-AA1kiU5B
"The chief executive of Binance, the largest global cryptocurrency exchange, stepped down and pleaded guilty to violating criminal U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements, in a deal that might preserve the company’s ability to continue operating, according to court documents.

Changpeng Zhao appeared in Seattle federal court Tuesday and entered his plea, according to court records. Prosecutors accused Binance, which Zhao owns, of facilitating transactions with sanctioned groups. Binance encouraged U.S. users to obscure their location so the firm could avoid complying with U.S. anti-money-laundering laws, prosecutors said.

Binance pleaded guilty and agreed to pay fines totaling $4.3 billion, which includes amounts to settle civil allegations made by regulators."

Historical tweet CZ
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1727063503125766367
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/11/22/F8aal.md.jpeg (https://www.talkimg.com/image/F8aal)

___
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/binance-to-make-complete-exit-from-us-pay-billions-to-fincen-ofac-on-top-of-doj-settlement/ar-AA1kjszk
Crypto exchange Binance will leave the U.S., pay billions in fines and appoint a monitor for five years to settle charges with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), the U.S. Treasury Department's money laundering and sanctions watchdogs, according to press releases shared Tuesday.

https://twitter.com/JohnReedStark/status/1727087727751864436
"Looking Ahead

This plea agreement strikes me as robust, onerous and is certainly unprecedented in the cryptoverse.

The question is not just whether Binance can survive the litany of extraordinary conditions of the monitoring provisions -- there's a lot more to ponder.  

For example, I am wondering whether any person will want to do business with Binance when the U.S. Department of Justice and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury Department may have unfettered access, 24-7, 365 days a year, to Binance customer information. That sort of exposure seems anathema to the crypto ethos of libertarian financial transactions.

Only time will tell. More info and pleadings to follow friends."

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/11/22/F8Xt1.jpeg (https://www.talkimg.com/image/F8Xt1)

https://twitter.com/JohnReedStark/status/1727323605665546497
"Why The Binance DOJ/FinCEN/CFTC Actions Are a Huge SEC Victory (Even Though the SEC Was AWOL From the Plea Party)"

4 Billion :)

Wow. This is insane. I did not see that coming.
Are we sure that $4.3 billion is the correct figure and not typing error? Fincen is reporting on $3.4 billion, which is the highest settlement in US history:

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1925

I have my doubts whether Binance will survive that. They already received severe beating from almost every side (I had to move my funds elsewhere due them no longer supporting GBP transactions). Media are already reporting that ~$1 billion of assets has left the platform after the news came out and it's not going to get any better anytime soon.
Unless the settlement allows the payment to be made in manageable chunks over a long period of time, I think this might be the end of Binance. Or maybe they'll just scale down, stay outside of the US sphere of influence and never pay that fee. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

"Binance encouraged U.S. users to obscure their location" - do we have any details on what exactly is this referring to? I find it hard to believe they were openly encouraging US customers to sign up.

I quoted the news, but as I understand it, 4.3 billion is the total amount of fines, otherwise there are errors in many news stories.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/21/binance-settlement-crypto-exchange
"The attorney general Merrick Garland said at a press conference that the total of $4.3bn in fines Binance and Zhao had agreed to pay as part of guilty pleas was one the largest penalties the justice department had ever obtained from a criminal matter."

Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s ex-CEO, represents a substantial risk of flight given his minimal ties with the U.S., prosecutors said.

U.S. prosecutors are asking Changpeng Zhao, Binance founder and ex-CEO, not to leave the country ahead of his sentencing hearing scheduled for February 2024.

In a filing on Wednesday, prosecutors said that Zhao, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates and Canada, should not be permitted to return to his home in the UAE before sentencing on February 23 next year given “the substantial risk of flight posed by Zhao.”
https://www.theblock.co/post/264457/prosecutors-seek-to-keep-cz-in-the-u-s-until-february-sentencing

The total fees associated with this settlement exceed $4 billion, comprising a forfeiture of $2.5 billion, a fine of $1.8 billion, and personal payments from Zhao amounting to about $50 million​​​​. https://crypto.news/zhaos-resignation-and-guilty-plea-a-new-era-for-binance-and-crypto/

sec wins!

after the battle they had over ripple which they lost I thought they would lose this one for sure.

I don't know what you mean by the SEC wins. Although, CZ pleaded guilty to money laundry but his hearing is still tomorrow and that's why he was told to remain in the US before he sought permission to travel which I don't know if he was granted permission.
https://i.ibb.co/f1gVDZv/payoneer.jpg

Well CZ plead guilty so he lost as he is guilty
that would mean the sec wins.

When a government agency is going after you and you plead guilty most people would say the government win and the plaintiff loses.

CZ is a convicted criminal by his own admission.

Does this mean I think he is bad evil etc. No it means he lost the case.

If the settlement is reached and it's Binance that will be paying the fees, not SEC, and if Binance will be effectively out of the US (which was probably the goal of the prosecution) and if CZ pleads guilty of (some of) the charges, then it's a big win for the SEC, however, you want to look at it.

---

It's puzzling how a lot of the major news worldwide are reporting on CZ pleading guilty to money-laundering charges, which is completely not true. As far as I understand, CZ pleaded guilty on a violation of sanctions/restrictions, which has nothing to do with actual money laundering. Violating "Anti Money Laundering" laws doesn't have to mean money laundering.

It's a shame, from the customers' perspective, Binance was one of the most solid centralised exchanges out there. I hope they'll survive, although, without CZ, it might not be the same.

Some people are presenting in such a way that CZ Volunteering stepped down as a gesture to save binance from all these money laundering allegations which may not be true as it was SEC who put all these cases on binance owner and he had no choice but to either proof himself right or face the consequences.
$4.3 billion settlement is one of the biggest settlements in the history of crypto.



Richard Teng is the new CEO of Binance and for sure, when things are run under the new management, we never know how they progress. If SEC stops chasing them, Binance may still come good out of this crisis but if the SEC regulations keep on tightening on binance then I am afraid Richard Teng won't be able to resist much.

The story can be considered complete, close the topic

I don't think people realise how serious that fee is. It's not "one of the biggest" but the biggest penalty, and not only in history of crypto, but in history of the treasury department. Google is not very helpful on this one, but I believe the previous highest fines were all below $1 billion.
This shows how hard they came on Binance, but also how serious the crypto industry has become, and I don't think the owners of the top crypto-businesses have been prepared for all this.
I wouldn't be surprised if CZ resigned just to see the end of it all and not risk a long time in prison. He still may be subject to investigation, but I imagine the settlement reached indicates the authorities are willing to drop the charges or at least go easy on him personally.
I wonder if this would ever happened if Binance made some big political donations like the FTX did.


I don't see them being allowed to freely compete in US or EU. That looked like a targeted action to remove the Chinese business from being on the top in favour of locally owned exchanges.

You have a point but I believe he pleaded guilty just to waive the right to a trial but the lawsuit appears to be far more than we think because the US SEC's latest statement was that  CZ committed an FTX level of fraud.
What I am surprised about the whole lawsuit is that much information is not provided as to the reason why the SEC believes CZ committed the SBF level of offense.
Having said that, I starting to believe BlackRock has something to do with the lawsuit cause they want to be the major player in the US crypto market after the spot ETF approval.


The topic should be closed because want it?
This is a decentralized forum and since the story behind the reason why the topic was created is still in development automatically the topic is not completed.

The story isn't completed yet. The media wants us to see only one side of the picture where we see that SEC has finally sued CZ and he is no longer the CEO but was this game between Binance VS SEC  OR  CZ vs SEC ?

CZ stepping down as the CEO by no means tells that Binance's future is dark or the exchange will be less popular as time goes on. This is not going to happen in my opinion. It is not easy to shut down binance worldwide when it is the most liquid exchange at the moment. Also, I don't think the Blackrock or others may overcome binance, outside the US binance market is too much strong.

Well, I don't know whether we have any reliable source of info on Binance actual liquidity, but media have been reporting on customers pulling out around $1 billion of assets after the announcement of the settlement was made.
I think Binance has been managed very well so far, with no evidence of them pulling any stunts like fractional reserves banking or similar things. But the agreed penalty is huge and we don't know what payment arrangements have been made. I'd imagine the payments would be spread over longer time, but the impact could still be crippling if the customers get spoofed and the volume drops significantly.
On top of that, as discussed earlier in this thread, Binance have not only had problems in the US but also in multiple other countries as well, so we don't know if there will be any further penalties and if Binance will ever return to markets they had to pull back from.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-next-binance-changpeng-cz-zhao
"Zhao was released under a $175 million bond that requires him to return to the U.S. 14 days before his sentencing date, which is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2024. In his comments, Stark noted that Judge Richard Jones is expected to consider the government’s motion on Nov. 27, possibly strengthening the bail requirements through additional bond conditions or delaying a decision."
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I think that CZ will still pay off with a lot of money. And if you are wondering who will be in charge in the US market, then look at who BlackRock is investing in.
The correct answer is Coinbase!

Agreed. Similar to what I have been saying before, Coinbase is Blockrock's partner for their ETF, being their custodian. Blackrock might have also invested in Coinbase's stock which might make them a stockholder and they might have voting rights on the exchange.

In any case, there might be another company in danger of being attacked and this is Tether. Blackrock has invested and also partnered with Circle the issuer of USDC. I will not be shocked if Blackrock is trying to kill the competition of their partners first before the final scheduled date of approval for their ETF.

Tether follows the right policy and invests its dollars in the American economy, that is, Treasuries, so they can come to an agreement. This CZ is alien and came to the American market with questionable schemes. On the one hand, Tether is needed by regulators so that Circle does not become impudent, but on the condition that Tether follows the correct policy. And if not, then I am sure that there are already large mountains of accusations against this company.

It's getting blatantly obvious that Coinbase has a silent support from SEC (and possibly other bodies) and is set to have a near monopoly on the US market. It's not just Binance that's being under attack. SEC has filed another complain against Kraken, despite them paying $30 millions under a settlement not that long ago (at the beginning of the year). This is getting ridiculous.
Jesse Powell (co-founder of Kraken) is losing it and attacks SEC on X
https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1726791124650713134?s=20

"Nothing personal just business"(C) :)

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https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8837-23

Federal Court Enters Order Against Binance and Former CEO, Zhao, Concluding CFTC Enforcement Action
"Washington, D.C. – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has approved the previously announced settlement and entered a consent order of permanent injunction, civil monetary penalty, and equitable relief against Changpeng Zhao and his companies Binance Holdings Limited, Binance Holdings (IE) Limited, and Binance (Services) Holdings Limited (together, Binance). In formalizing the settlement initially announced on November 21 [See CFTC Press Release No. 8825-23], the court finds Zhao and Binance violated the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, imposes a $150 million civil monetary penalty personally against Zhao, and requires Binance to disgorge $1.35 billion of ill-gotten transaction fees and pay a $1.35 billion penalty to the CFTC. The order also obligates Zhao and Binance to make certifications as to the existence, application, and efficacy of Binance’s improved compliance controls, and permanently enjoins them from further violations as charged. "

 Hacker Sells Access to Binance’s Law Enforcement Portal, Cryptocurrency Holders at Risk.  (https://www.infostealers.com/article/hacker-sells-access-to-binances-law-enforcement-portal-cryptocurrency-holders-at-risk/)

Although threat actors often lie about accesses they possess, in this example it appears the threat actor maintains positive reputation from previous sales conducted on the forum, and they also offer a range of other unrelated accesses.

The asking price for the access is $10,000 in Bitcoins or Monero.
In order to identify how the threat actor obtained access to the panel, Hudson Rock researchers first located the location of Binance’s law enforcement panel which is hosted on kodexglobal.com

I would like to discuss one point.
Zhao is awaiting trial in the US at the end of February. Previously, you read the news that the US government banned Zhao from leaving the country until a court decision and did not even let him out to see a sick relative on a huge bail of 4.5 billion dollars.

Why?
If Zhao does not come to court, he will lose a lot of money and will be wanted.
Is Zhao's fate now being decided or has it already been decided?

Is this a form of pressure or will Zhao get a prison sentence?

Because simple logic! He has no family, he has no assets in the US , he is not a citizens and all he put down as a guarantee was equity in a foreign company not based in the US but still under his total control. Do you think any country would have let him go?


Yeah right, this thing wouldn't be believed even on this forum but by a judge, we had this thing in our country before we joined the EU, every time an official was arrested for fraud he suddenly got ill, we even nicknamed the anti corruption department the cancer screeners as they were finding more cases in their arrest that a doctor in a hospital.
How much are you willing to bet that CZ "relative" has miraculously got better and got out hospital the moment poor CZ couldn't get there?

Okay, I will try to prove to you that the fact of collateral is not important. I am sure that CZ came to the US to be tried and agreed to pay a huge fine because he entered into an agreement with the US government.
If an agreement has been concluded, then the trial will be formal. You will agree that CZ would not have come to the USA without agreements.

I think that new circumstances have appeared in the case, and now CZ is under the influence of the US judicial system.

Binance founder CZ’s sentencing date postponed to late April  (https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-founder-changpeng-zhao-sentencing-date-april)
The criminal sentencing for Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has been pushed back to April 30.

The “notice of rescheduled hearing” was filed in a Seattle Federal Court on Feb. 12. Zhao was originally due to be sentenced on Feb. 23 after pleading guilty to money laundering charges. He is expected to face up to 18 months in prison.

However, a Nov. 24 filing by the prosecution indicated that he may face a harsher punishment than initially expected.

“The defense claims that Mr. Zhao faces merely a “brief” sentence and has no incentive to flee. The reality is that the top-end of the Guidelines range may be as high as 18 months, and the United States is free to argue for any sentence up to the statutory maximum of ten years.”

But you were the one who claimed that the the collateral was the one who would guarantee that CZ would have returned even with a conviction pending. How come that right now you want to prove the opposite?


Yeah, he agreed to let the US  government do as it please with him!
Yu know what the deal of pleading guilty means? That he has no choice when the ruling is served, the only way to appeal would be for him to be granted a new trial under the not guilty defense, meaning a far longer conviction. So he basically came to the country, signed up for a deal that will remove his appeal no matter what the sentence is and gave up almost eveything just, so to not be hunted down and still be brought in front of a judge.
But everything is #safu!



Looks like they enjoy slow cooking him! Probably the DOJ flexing its muscle for show  as message he's done for , this was like the final warning that they can toy with him as they please, probably the lower 6 month sentence that will be cut to 3 for first time offense in minimum security, then he will go and enjoy his life but without touching an exchange or crypto again.

I want to say that the fact that CZ was refused to be released from the country on a huge bail and the trial was postponed until the end of April only means that CZ’s deal with the US government has fallen through.
Of course, under the terms of the deal, CZ must plead guilty to all charges. The second main condition of the deal is to provide complete and truthful information to the US government.
I believe that new circumstances have emerged in this case that play against CZ. Therefore, the US authorities gave him time to think before the Bitcoin halving :)
And if he doesn’t agree to the deal, the jury will probably give him more than one life sentence.

There is zero chances of him being handed a life sentence. Zero!
The maximum maximum what the prosecutors can ask for on all charges combined would be ten years and that would be on all aggravating circumstances, but him pleading guilty in the first case cuts that!

Zero chances for a life sentence, close to zero for the maximum  10 years and probably not even half for the 18 months.
I doubt it will be more than 6 months and those will probably be in a FPC, some of those are way better than the housing in 80% of the world, not Norway but still way better than what people think of prisons.

This is where you are wrong. 50% chance that there will be life imprisonment and 50% chance that there will be no life imprisonment ;D

But to be serious, I think the American intelligence services have collected a lot of incriminating evidence on CZ and in case of refusal of the deal, the prison term could be close to life imprisonment.

So are you willing to bet a coin on the life imprisonment? I'm all ears!
Remember, CZ is not Navalny tripping on a wet towel in some prison and dying of 30 billets in his back!

Hayes was accused of exactly the same with Bitmex, he did the same thing, surrender to the US coming to Hawaii, release on bail but not allowed to flee the country, he had no priors so he was sentenced for six months house arrest and just  two years probation. Belo did the same, came to surrender got a probation offense, after one year he was allowed to go to Hong Kong, and that was that!

Again this is the DoJ flexing its muscle and telling them to play nicely and they will get treated nicely, be some sort of wanna be rebel and loud mouth rascal and you're going to get it!


On what accusation????
You need to accuse somebody of a charge that comes with life imprisonment if found guilty!
There is none that has this sentence in the current prosecution!

If CZ is tried in the US for financial crimes, I agree that he will receive no more than 18 months of house arrest.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-17/bahamas-bank-deltec-accused-of-giving-sbf-secret-credit-to-buy-tether

But if the deal doesn’t go through, then I can only assume that he could be tried on other charges related to the financing of terrorism. And this is not just one life sentence.

https://abc7chicago.com/israel-hostages-binance-crypto/14378652/
"An American woman freed after being held hostage in Gaza and the families of two men killed in the Oct. 7 attack in Israel sued Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, which they accused of providing a funding mechanism for Hamas."

Judge Signs (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/judge-signs-off-binances-4-204448296.html?) Off on Binance's $4.3B Plea Deal With U.S. Prosecutors

A federal judge has signed off on crypto exchange Binance's $4.3 billion plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice.

During a sentencing hearing Friday, Judge Richard Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington approved the top-line fine itself, though he did not yet sign off on any monitor for the exchange. Bloomberg first reported the news earlier Friday.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-seeks-36-months-jail-binance-founder-zhao-2024-04-24/

US seeks 3 years prison for Binance founder Zhao

"U.S. prosecutors want Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former chief executive of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, to serve three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to violating laws against money laundering.
Prosecutors made the request in a Tuesday night filing in Seattle federal court.
They said sentencing Zhao to twice the maximum 18 months recommended under federal guidelines would reflect the magnitude of his willful violations, and send a message that "the right choice, every time, is to comply with the law.""

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If you come to visit us, then spend a little time in prison :'(

Binance Founder Sentenced to 4 Months in Prison for Money Laundering Charges

Changpeng Zhao, popularly known as CZ, the visionary founder behind Binance, the world’s premier cryptocurrency exchange, found himself in the spotlight as he faced sentencing in a US federal court in Seattle. The verdict, a four-month prison term, marked a significant chapter in the tumultuous journey of one of the most influential figures in the crypto sphere.

Before the court’s ruling, CZ took the opportunity to express remorse for his actions during his tenure as CEO of Binance. In a heartfelt letter to the judge, he acknowledged the gravity of his decisions and vowed to learn from his mistakes, ensuring that such lapses in judgment would not recur.

The legal saga stemmed from a coordinated settlement between Binance and the federal government, wherein the exchange giant agreed to pay a staggering $4 billion in fines and penalties. The charges ranged from anti-money laundering violations to unlicensed money transmission and sanctions breaches. As part of the settlement, CZ, with a personal fortune nearing $40 billion, agreed to step down from his role as CEO and pay fines totaling $200 million.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/binance-founder-sentenced-to-4-months-in-prison-for-money-laundering-charges/ar-AA1nY28q

Here's the story of the events in court
https://twitter.com/nikhileshde/status/1785350502949241039
"Good morning folks. I'm in a Seattle courthouse today with @realDannyNelson  covering @cz_binance's sentencing hearing. The DOJ's asked for 3 years in prison; defense has asked for house arrest and probation. Thread starts here"

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CZ got away with a very short prison sentence. Although there are many people in the United States who are dissatisfied with this decision, the first act of the play is over.

CZ twitter: (https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1785465555899822488)

I would like to thank everyone for your care and support, be it writing letters, showing support on X, or in any other form. They all mean a lot to me and keep me strong. I will do my time, conclude this phase and focus on the next chapter of my life (education).

I will remain a passive investor (and holder) in crypto. Our industry has entered a new phase. Compliance is super important.

A silver lining of this whole process is that Binance has been under the microscope. And funds are SAFU.

Protect users!