US Regulator Sues Crypto Giant Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao
A top U.S. regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), on Monday accused cryptocurrency giant Binance and its founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao of operating what the regulator claimed was an “illegal” exchange and compliance program. “farce”.
The CFTC sued Binance, Zhao and its former compliance executive for “willful evasion” of US law, “while engaging in a calculated strategy of regulatory arbitrage for their business benefit.”
Rostin Behnam, chairman of the CFTC, said the allegations against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, are part of a campaign to “find and stop misconduct in the volatile and risky digital asset market.”
Binance CEO is disappointed
Zhao, a billionaire who was born in China and moved to Canada aged 12, called the CFTC complaint “unexpected and disappointing.”
“After an initial review, the complaint appears to contain an incomplete description of the facts, and we disagree with the characterization of many of the alleged problems in the complaint,” Zhao said in a statement.
Zhao was often portrayed as the archrival of cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, who was arrested in the Bahamas in December and will face a criminal trial in the US later this year.
Meanwhile, a Binance spokesperson said the company will continue to “collaborate” with regulators. Binance has made “significant investments” to ensure it does not have US users on its platform, the spokesperson said.
Source: DW
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