Everything You Need To Know.

As you all know, Binance has been a target for almost the entirety of 2023. As the World’s biggest exchange by trading volume kicked off its platform from July 2017, I'm sure it never saw a future like this one she is in now, maybe some parts of it because as you know every company hopes to be the biggest in the world some day.

This is the story of someone who simply wanted to provide everyone the opportunity to have freedom if they so choose. Chanpeng Zhao aka CZ, started his Bitcoin journey earlier in the year 2013 when many thought it was probably nothing. Playing poker with the famous Bobby Lee also ended with the best advice someone could've given to a friend. Mr.Lee suggested CZ put just a little ten percent of his money into Bitcoin and the Business mogul went ahead after much and proper research, decided to do more than just a ten percent. He not just sold his house and bought Bitcoin but also quit his job to focus solely on it. Even though when asked why he left the company Okcoin, one of the leading exchange in China at the time under CZ’s watch as Chief Technology Officer CTO in February 2015, He merely said it was a difference in direction and never indicated it to be due to the new found gem he'd encountered and was still affirmative he was going to remain in the technological space of innovation. I'm sure now you're convinced of my assertion that he left it to focus solely on building something for himself.

Fast forward two years later, Binance was born in July 2017 with an initial coin offering of around $15 million later on and trading began shortly after. In less than eight months, CZ grew the company into the biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of April 2018 which we can all say was already the start to a very bright future in the space.

After being banished from China, Binance has never had a formal headquarters. Binance was founded in China, banished to Japan and self-exiled to Malta, whose financial regulator later denied having oversight of the exchange. While the firm has a major presence in Singapore, it was dealt a setback last month when its local unit withdrew an application to run an exchange in the city-state. Now Binance is trying to settle on a location, Zhao said during the November interview in 2023 adding that an announcement about the headquarters would be coming “in a very short period,” but that was news for another day.

The Fight for Control.

With only a year since inception and the success story kept going on and on, the company had grown massively in trading volume to compete with the big companies of the day like Coinbase, etc. With the rate at which it was headed, every government would think “ if we don't do something about this thing now it might come back to hunt us later “. If this was the case, I'm not so sure but China went on to ban cryptocurrency in 2021 which led binance to relocate somewhere else for its business. This was a direct attack on CZ as he lost the majority of his market but that didn't stop the business mogul, he rather saw this as an opportunity for expansion not realizing the thought processes of governments all around the world were alike or did he?

Every country you go to reside to do business will only allow it as long as they don't see it as something beyond their control. Once it starts to look like something out of reach, you'll be clamped down with full force. This wasn't far from CZ’s thoughts I suppose, as he had already said in 2020 the company’s headquarters was wherever he happened to be. Well, you could plan something and later change your mind to do the other with knowledge over time I suppose. It's a wise choice everything would naturally make.

That same year of 2021, it was news that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Internal Revenue Service were investigating whether one entity CZ controls (Binance Holdings), was a conduit for money laundering and tax evasion even though the DOJ and IRS declined to make any comments on the news when asked. In addition to the DOJ and IRS investigations, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was also probing possible market manipulations and insider trading within binance, and whether it allowed US clients to trade derivatives tied to cryptocurrency. These were mere assertions then but the current cloud hovering over the crypto firm suggests affirmative of how accurate this information was at the time, if the regulatory bodies were really investigating it. Let's look more in-depth at what exactly the charges are for the crypto firm.

Binance Legal Troubles.

On 27 March 2023, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Binance and Zhao in the United States District Court for the Nothern District of Illinois, claiming willful evasion of US law and allegedly breaching derivatives rules. The agency accused Binance of breaking rules intended to thwart money laundering operations, pointing to internal communications describing transactions by Palestinian militant organization Hamas and suspected criminals. That wasn't all as expected.

In June 2023, the U.S Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was suing Zhao and Binance on 13 charges for alleged violations of US securities rules.

In November 2023, Zhao agreed to resign from Binance and pay a $50 million fine as part of a guilty plea to U.S. federal charges. Binance also agreed to plead guilty, and to pay $4.3 billion in fines. Zhao was replaced as CEO by Executive Director Richard Teng.

Zhao personally pled guilty to violating the American Bank Secrecy Act by prioritizing Binance's growth over compliance with FinCEN anti-money laundering requirements. Although Zhao only personally pled guilty to a single criminal charge, as part of plea bargain negotiations, Zhao agreed for Binance to also admit to operating an unlicensed Money Transmitting Business and to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Binance settled charges with the DOJ and Commodities Futures Trading Commission; the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which will give the Treasury Department access to Binance’s books and records under the terms of a five-year monitorship.

Imagine This On A Chess Board

I want to indulge you in a little imaginative exercise. I'm stating this purely as imagination because I'm entitled to think and say what I want without any actions against my words as misleading or in any form. So walk with me on this.

Bitcoin stands for freedom. Our governments stands for Control. Binance represents Bitcoin in this case, and the regulatory bodies represent our government. Now the question would be, white or black, what strategy would our government take in their drive and hunger for control in the crypto-verse?

Of course, the obvious Goal would be to take out the officials; the knights, the bishops, and rooks but more importantly, the Queen as she's the most dangerous. With that away the king is left defenseless against his foes. I hope you got this little thing we did here.

I'd like to talk more in-depth about what I think BlackRock’s sudden move and craze for Bitcoin is fueled by in later articles. I'm sure you'd want to hear my thoughts on that. As always, my name is Clever Abaribote and I'm your favorite crypto journalist. Follow to stay in the know of the latest in-depth analysis of things going on in the world of money and technology.

Writer and Editor: Clever Abaribote

Sources : Wikipedia, The Sydney Morning Herald, Cointelegraph.