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The price of BNB has pumped over 5% in the last 24 hours as US President Donald Trump defends his pardon for Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Following the latest gain, BNB trades at $1,141.14 as of 1:00 a.m. EST, according to data from CoinMarketCap.  BNB price (Source: CoinMarketCap ) The altcoin is now more than 13% in the green on the monthly time frame, but is over 16% down from the all-time high (ATH) of $1,370.55 that was set on Oct. 13.  Trump Pardons Binance’s CZ After “A Lot Of People” Said He Wasn’t Guilty CZ pleaded guilty in November 2023 to one count of failing to implement an adequate Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program at Binance, and for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He was also fined $50 million, and Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion as part of a settlement.  As part of the plea, CZ also agreed to step down from his role at the time as Binance’s CEO. Then, in April 2024, CZ was sentenced to four months in ...

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has moved to dismiss the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) amended lawsuit, claiming that the regulator can’t differentiate between crypto securities and Beanie Babies. Binance and Zhao filed the motion to dismiss yesterday while alleging the SEC’s new filing “refuses to articulate any standard for courts, litigants, or market participants to know which crypto-asset transactions qualify as investment contracts, and which do not.”  The SEC filed the lawsuit in June 2023 and amended it last month. It names Binance, BAM Trading Services Inc., and BAM Management US Holdings, alongside Zhao, as defendants.  According to the motion to dismiss, winners and losers are being chosen “arbitrarily” by the SEC and “its non-test cannot differentiate securities from Beanie Babies at the pleading stage.” The filing then singles out five types of transactions that it believes the SEC has misinterpreted within its fresh allegations . ...

Ryan Salame, the former co-chief exec of FTX Digital Markets, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison for conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter. Salame has also been ordered to make $6 million in forfeiture and $5 million in restitution. Salame was directly involved in the usage of the ‘North Dimension’ entity to aid in maintaining access to bank accounts for FTX, despite it not being appropriately licensed to serve as a money transmitter. He was also instrumental in FTX’s political influence scheme, working with Sam Bankman-Fried and Nishad Singh to make hundreds of unlawful political donations. Additionally, FTX Digital Markets made hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of payments to Michelle Bond, a failed congressional candidate and romantic partner to Salame. Bond additionally received donations to her campaign from FTX US. Salame’s sentence weighs in at significantly less than t...

Due to some formalities in the criminal justice system, a world-class team of lawyers, and Fifth Amendment protections of due process, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao isn’t yet in prison despite receiving a four-month sentence. On April 30, 2024, a US district judge in Seattle sentenced Zhao to four months at Seatac, an administrative security federal detention center and prison. According to the judge’s signed judgment, Zhao “shall surrender for service of sentence as notified by the Probation or Pretrial Services Office.” Those offices have not yet notified Zhao that he must enter that California prison. Possibilities for sentenced criminals who don’t immediately go to prison According to federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a), a criminal’s sentence begins when that person is ‘received in custody awaiting transportation to, or voluntarily surrenders to, the official detention facility at which her sentence is to be served.’ Although that sentence can begin i...

Given Silicon Valley Bank’s direct involvement in destabilizing USDC prices, CZ blamed banks for increasing the risks of stablecoins. The death spiral of the Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) ecosystem served as a catalyst to the 2022 bear market — causing losses in the millions, damaging investor sentiment and intensifying the regulatory spotlight over cryptocurrencies. However, the recent depegging of Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) led Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao to believe that traditional banks are a risk to stable coins that are usually pegged 1:1 with fiat currencies, like the US dollar. On March 11, Circle disclosed that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) did not process its $3.3 billion withdrawal request. The crypto market responded to the revelation by selling off their USDC holdings, causing the US dollar-backed stablecoin to lose its peg. Given SVB’s direct involvement in destabilizing USDC prices, CZ blamed banks for increasing the risks of stablecoins. Banks are a risk to fiat-back...