U.S. regulator sues CZ – Desperate attempt to damage Binance?

The CFTC is suing Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, accusing him of breaching trading rules. Operation Choke point 2.0 continues.

Attacks on crypto continue

The Biden Administration, the banks, and the financial watch dogs are throwing the kitchen sink at crypto. Every move that is made is calculated to bring the most amount of harm and damage to crypto infrastructure.

As the banking system becomes an obsolete wasteland, the powers that be in the U.S. have decided that they will concentrate all the fire power at their disposal in order to try and cripple the crypto industry, and bitcoin in particular.

It must be hurting them so much to see the Federal Reserve and other central banks reduced to printing fiat currency at such a furious rate in order to prop up banks that are dead in the water. And as this is happening, investors are flocking to bitcoin in order to get themselves out of the system.

The latest coordinated attack on the CEO of the largest crypto exchange by trading volume in the world is designed to spread FUD and make would-be crypto investors think twice about taking their money out of the bank and putting it into crypto.

CFTC sues Binance CEO

The main thrust of the CFTC filing is that it alleges that CZ has allowed U.S. residents to buy and sell crypto derivatives since 2019, and maintains that any entity offering such services should have registered with the CFTC. The filing reads:

“Beginning no later than July 2019 and continuing through the present, Binance, under Zhao’s direction… has solicited and accepted orders, accepted property to margin, and operated a facility for the trading of futures, options, swaps, and leveraged retail commodity transactions involving digital assets that are commodities including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and litecoin (LTC) for persons in the United States,”

The filing continues:

“Since the launch of its platform in 2017, Binance has taken a calculated, phased approach to increase its United States presence despite publicly stating its purported intent to “block” or “restrict” customers located in the United States from accessing its platform,” the filing charges. “All the while, Binance, Zhao, and Lim, the platform’s former Chief Compliance Officer (“CCO”), have each known that Binance’s solicitation of customers located in the United States subjected Binance to registration and regulatory requirements under U.S. law.”

Crypto price fall

News of the CFTC filing has possibly contributed to the price of bitcoin and crypto falling across the board. Bitcoin (BTC) fell to around $26,500 before recovering to $27,000 at time of going to press. The total crypto market cap fell to $1.09 trillion, but has since recovered to $1.102 trillion. 

U.S. citizens stuck with a failing currency

The law is the law, and should it be found that Binance was contravening U.S. rules then it will no doubt be made to pay a suitable fine. That the CFTC should choose this moment in time to charge the crypto exchange is however interesting.

Another interesting question is whether U.S. citizens should be allowed to avail themselves of crypto services, whether offered by Binance or by any other suitably regulated exchange? 

Surely the only reason can be the protection of U.S. citizens. But preventing those citizens from buying assets that are outside of the U.S. banking system will mean that they will either have to try and circumnavigate the system, or be left to fend for themselves at the mercy of archaic and obsolete banks, with a currency that is worth drastically less with each passing year.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.