Changpeng Zhao in court: up to 3 years in prison


The romantic era of Binance is over, the crypto exchange has transformed into a regular corporation.


Changpeng Zhao, CEO and founder of Binance may spend the next three years in prison and pay a fine of $50M. This is what the US Department of Justice demanded in court.

Zhao returned to the United States last year and voluntarily appeared before American law enforcement. It was agreed to pay Zhao and Binance themselves multimillion-dollar fines, but the imprisonment was not discussed.




Zhao made a difficult decision - under the terms of the agreement, he left the CEO position and more or less participated in the management of the company. Since the beginning of 2023, pressure on the crypto exchange has been organized in all directions. Binance denied licenses, initiated investigations, and put pressure on managers. The exchange lost customers and territories.


However, Zhao proved intransigent and did not want to retreat without a fight. Binance expanded into emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, while reducing operations in the US and Europe. Nevertheless, last autumn Zhao received an offer from the US authorities, which could not be refused. We do not know exactly what was in this sentence, and we can only judge by its result: the founder of Binance has stopped resistance.


Was the pursuit of Binance and Zhao business as usual, or is it something new?


In fact, the motivation for the large-scale pursuit of the crypto exchange was not so obvious. Unlike, for example, the FTX crypto - еxchange, Binance did not go bankrupt, its customers and partners did not lose money. Frankly, the money laundering charges didn’t look very convincing. The exchange is still a platform that provides infrastructure to customers. The accusations of illegal trading in securities are also questionable, as the decisions of the courts do not support this thesis. 


Now Binance becomes a «normal financial company», subject to formal and informal rules. The era has passed.


#BinanceFall #CryptoRegulation #ChangpengZhao #LegalTroubles #CryptocurrencyEvolution

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