More bad news for crypto. The hits keep on coming.
It was bound to happen, with the regulators first going after stablecoins and then FTX and then Coinbase and now Binance and CZ.
This part of the report struck me:
Without commenting on any of the specific allegations in the suit, a Binance spokesperson said the company has “made significant investments over the past two years to ensure we do not have U.S. users active on our platform,” including growing its compliance team from 100 to 750 people and spending $80 million on [know-your-customer] and other compliance vendors and tools.
“The complaint filed by the CFTC is unexpected and disappointing as we have been working collaboratively with the CFTC for more than two years. Nevertheless, we intend to continue to collaborate with regulators in the U.S. and around the world. The best path forward is to protect our users and to collaborate with regulators to develop a clear, thoughtful regulatory regime,” the spokesperson said.
They’ve invested in building our their compliance team and KYC process, and have been in talks with the CFTC at the same time.
Does this mean the CFTC is allowing this to happen without any guidance? It’s certainly surprising, as Binance, as one of the leading CEXs since day, knew regulators would be keeping a close eye.
On the face of it, this just smells of more overreach and lack of direction on the CFTC’s part.