Would Binance be penalized $10.1 billion if Trump were the President before?

[Botnake]

I just want to ask for your opinions on this… We know that Trump is pro-Bitcoin, so he might be more focused on compliance with fewer penalties, if I understand correctly. Let’s go back a bit… talking about exchanges, particularly Binance.

We all know Binance paid billions in penalties - the total based on the sources below was $10.1 billion. So if Trump were president at that time, do you think they wouldn’t have been penalized as much, or maybe wouldn’t have been targeted by the SEC or other government agencies at all?

Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution
Zhao to Pay $150 Million and Binance to Pay $2.7 Billion to CFTC
FinCEN’s consent order assesses a civil money penalty of $3.4 billion,

[kotajikikox]

We all know Binance paid billions in penalties - the total based on the sources below was $10.1 billion. So if Trump were president at that time, do you think they wouldn’t have been penalized as much, or maybe wouldn’t have been targeted by the SEC or other government agencies at all?

That is difficult to say because yes Trump may be pro-bitcoin now but he wasn't before. In fact he was very straightforward with what he thought of bitcoin and he did not believe in it. If he won the election against Biden, who's to say if he would have retained his ideologies about bitcoin or would he have changed his opinion even if he was always the one in power.

To me there is no point in dwelling on the past as Trump does not hold the same opinions anymore or at least does not appear to be. We should just focus on the future instead.

[Free Market Capitalist]

That is difficult to say because yes Trump may be pro-bitcoin now but he wasn't before. In fact he was very straightforward with what he thought of bitcoin and he did not believe in it. If he won the election against Biden, who's to say if he would have retained his ideologies about bitcoin or would he have changed his opinion even if he was always the one in power.

To me there is no point in dwelling on the past as Trump does not hold the same opinions anymore or at least does not appear to be. We should just focus on the future instead.

That's what I was thinking. To me, thinking about what would have happened if what happened hadn't happened seems like cheap philosophy, and I don't usually give it much thought. What we know is that Trump was not pro-crypto before, and that if he is now it is because he has been convinced by the people around him and because he saw an electoral advantage.

[AVE5]

It's not worth of Trump to compromise legal governing structures that has been layed to existence long ago. Just because he's a pro bitcoineer doesn't mean he should tolerance with an exchange of violating the laws simply because the exchange has a common relationship with cryptocurrency as bitcoin. His indictment of doing would make him a being biased and that could sabotage a high esteem level of his political personality and as much would seem to encourage illegalities.
So if binance exchange was guilty for appealing guilty, of course they've to face the wrath of judgement so that such incident doesn't have to be emulated by others if Trump would have to temper the exchange with romantical justice.

[OcTradism]

I just want to ask for your opinions on this… We know that Trump is pro-Bitcoin, so he might be more focused on compliance with fewer penalties, if I understand correctly. Let’s go back a bit… talking about exchanges, particularly Binance.

We can not change the past, can not guess what will Trump do with Binance and Changpeng Zao if he was a President instead of Biden. It's non sense question and it is not helpful too. We can move toward future with next four years when Trump will be a President of the USA.

Trump will not revert that case, refund Binance and CZ but we can see what he will do with other cryptocurrency exchanges. Especially it's more important to see what he wants to do with CEX from China. We know Trump has his instinct of fighting against China, like how he started a trade war with that nation.

Think further, BlackRock is the USA company and they played key role to help us having Bitcoin Spot ETFs in January 2024. They will not spend a lot of resources to benefit exchanges from other countries especially China. Trump might be more friendly with exchanges from European but he will not do this with exchanges originated from China.

[avp2306]

That is difficult to say because yes Trump may be pro-bitcoin now but he wasn't before. In fact he was very straightforward with what he thought of bitcoin and he did not believe in it. If he won the election against Biden, who's to say if he would have retained his ideologies about bitcoin or would he have changed his opinion even if he was always the one in power.

To me there is no point in dwelling on the past as Trump does not hold the same opinions anymore or at least does not appear to be. We should just focus on the future instead.

That's what I was thinking. To me, thinking about what would have happened if what happened hadn't happened seems like cheap philosophy, and I don't usually give it much thought. What we know is that Trump was not pro-crypto before, and that if he is now it is because he has been convinced by the people around him and because he saw an electoral advantage.

Really hard to speculate something especially that nothing happen with Binace under Trumps term before. Binance has been sued by government under Biden's term so we can assume at that situation that Biden term is worst for Binance existence.

Maybe right now the one we can assume is that Binance would not provably encounter any same like cases they encounter before if they didn't do anything illegal and will just do pure business.

What people look forward right now is hopefully Trump will choose a Secretary which is also Pro bitcoin and crypto since with that we can say that better days would really came.

[Fiatless]

So if Trump were president at that time, do you think they wouldn’t have been penalized as much, or maybe wouldn’t have been targeted by the SEC or other government agencies at all?

Every government would like to raise funds from diverse means, including fines because there are many projects to execute. Nobody can accurately predict what Trump would have done if he had been president. However, from his promise to the crypto sector, he never said that any crypto firm that violates any regulation will not be heavily fined. Maybe they would have gotten a lesser fine if Gary Gensler wasnt in charge of the SEC. 

[Iranus]

The punishment for Binance is inevitable, it can be said that this is a purge to gain market share from Wall Street. But perhaps the penalty would have been lighter if this had happened under Trump because as we all know, most Democrats are not crypto-friendly, not just the SEC. Even US crypto companies are being harassed by the SEC, so a non-US exchange like Binance is unlikely to avoid heavy penalties.

But as kotajikikox said, discussing a problem that is in the past and cannot be changed will not benefit us, we should focus on the future. Let's wait and see what Trump does with bitcoin and crypto, that's more important than the future of Binance or any crypto company.

[arwin100]

I just want to ask for your opinions on this… We know that Trump is pro-Bitcoin, so he might be more focused on compliance with fewer penalties, if I understand correctly. Let’s go back a bit… talking about exchanges, particularly Binance.

We all know Binance paid billions in penalties - the total based on the sources below was $10.1 billion. So if Trump were president at that time, do you think they wouldn’t have been penalized as much, or maybe wouldn’t have been targeted by the SEC or other government agencies at all?

Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution
Zhao to Pay $150 Million and Binance to Pay $2.7 Billion to CFTC
FinCEN’s consent order assesses a civil money penalty of $3.4 billion,

I maybe guess its similar situation might bound to happen since those illegalities what government found maybe still grounds for Binance to get penalized by Trump administration before. Also its not secret to lot of people that bitcoin is not a bitcoin friendly person before so provably that Trump at that time will not give any shit to defend nor disturb the cases drop by Binance also to their CEO.

But now its good to see that Trump is now saying something good about bitcoin since we could able to see some possible great changes under his term. Maybe we cannot see Bitcoin to became a legal tender in US, but at least they allow people to use it without getting disturb especially for the platforms operating in that country then this is fine and already a good development for bitcoin.

[o48o]

I just want to ask for your opinions on this… We know that Trump is pro-Bitcoin, so he might be more focused on compliance with fewer penalties, if I understand correctly. Let’s go back a bit… talking about exchanges, particularly Binance.

We all know Binance paid billions in penalties - the total based on the sources below was $10.1 billion. So if Trump were president at that time, do you think they wouldn’t have been penalized as much, or maybe wouldn’t have been targeted by the SEC or other government agencies at all?

Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution
Zhao to Pay $150 Million and Binance to Pay $2.7 Billion to CFTC
FinCEN’s consent order assesses a civil money penalty of $3.4 billion,

And why would trump had been interested on what happens to CZ or binance? May i remind you that Binance started at China, and that's the country trump is now setting up 60% tariffs against.

Trump isn't pro crypto, he is just pro about his own power, and for now, he has got profits from crypto, amazingly by not even knowing how it works. So if anything, he would want to promote the upcoming WLF DEX that his family is getting 75% profit from and anything other than that (like Binance) would have been just direct competition. So it would benefit him to be able to punish them.

[passwordnow]

So if Trump were president at that time, do you think they wouldn’t have been penalized as much, or maybe wouldn’t have been targeted by the SEC or other government agencies at all?

Pretty much same same. I don't think that there will ever be some other reasons why they wouldn't be penalized just because of Trump. Trump might be all in support for crypto but for as long as they're compliant with the US rules and regulations, that's what is going to save them from all of the trouble.

And as for US SEC, it is an independent agency that can decide and act on what they think is right, penalize the wrong and wrongdoers. Although Trump can influence the decision of SEC but if it's the law, I guess then that says it, the law will still penalize them regardless of who's the leader.

[Hispo]

Trump may say he is pro-Bitcoin and pro cryptocurrency (I still don't believe him to be though). But those cases would have still happen because some of them were not related to services themselves but rather the abuse of certain groups within Binance to carry out money laundering and wire fraud, it is estimated groups like Hamas and Hezbollah actively used Bitcoin and Binance for them to have access to liquidity, so Trump (who is not a fan of those terrorist groups) would have allowed the federal government to prosecute Binance anyways.

It is not about liking or not Bitcoin, it is about going against criminals and warmongers.

[Charles-Tim]

We all know Binance paid billions in penalties - the total based on the sources below was $10.1 billion. So if Trump were president at that time, do you think they wouldn’t have been penalized as much, or maybe wouldn’t have been targeted by the SEC or other government agencies at all?

Trump can be a bitcoin enthusiast but that does not mean he should support something that is deemed illegal. No matter how he supports bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, not in a way some people will do something illegal and he will remain silent. If the SEC is bitcoin friendly, that does not mean he should be friendly with something illegal. It is very possible the same thing could happen.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

We know that before now, Trump was not a fan of Bitcoin for some reasons, before he later became a Bitcoin pro, for some reasons too. It was until Trump started his campaign that we began to hear news and see how his interest on Bitcoin has grown. So, even if Trump was the president then and did not yet fan Bitcoin, it means that CZ would have still paid his fine.