If you remember the Top 10 Market Cap Staking Yields article from March 18, you’ll note I wrote this:
Now, WTF happened with $BNB going from 97% of its supply staked to just 15%? No idea
Maybe we’ll get an answer to that after this newest round of major crypto FUD. 😵💫
CZ And BNB Targeted By The CFTC
News broke this morning on CNBC that the CFTC (The Commodity Futures and Trading Commission) has gone after Binance, its co-founder Changpeng Zhao, and its former chief compliance officer Samuel Lim, for soliciting U.S. users and not adhering to proper compliance protocols.
The regulator filed a civil action with U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, claiming Binance violated several provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act, including laws to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
Binance allegedly went out of its way to obscure where its subsidiaries were located, and its VIP program was a key part of its effort to solicit U.S. users.
VIPs were given special treatment and were even given a heads-up by Binance when law enforcement pursued them or froze their assets.
300 House Accounts?
Watcher.guru went into a little more detail regarding the CFTC’s lawsuit that was filed in Federal court:
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 CFTC lawsuit alleges #Binance traded on their own platform with 300 accounts directly or indirectly associated with CEO CZ. pic.twitter.com/DL1sDClIJw
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) March 27, 2023
The CFTC alleges that Binance traded with 300 “house accounts” linked to CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The lawsuit further claims that Binance did not implement “anti-fraud or anti-manipulation surveillance or controls” on the 300 accounts, which were exempt from the exchange’s newly established insider trading policies. 🤔
In response to the news, CZ posted this on Twitter:
4
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) March 27, 2023
4 is a reference to his January 2, 2023 post:
Will try to keep 2023 simple. Spend more time on less things. Do's and Don'ts.
1. Education
2. Compliance
3. Product & Service4. Ignore FUD, fake news, attacks, etc.
In the future, would appreciate if you can link to this post when I tweet "4". 🙏
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) January 2, 2023
We’ll update you as this story develops. 📖