![]() In decentralised finance – a corner of crypto where trading runs on software rather than any corporate platform – Binance also has its BNB Chain, a network whose independence has always been in question. His expertise and the lack of material crypto regulation have helped make Binance a global giant. In 2013, Mr Zhao was running his own software company in Shanghai when he discovered Bitcoin over a poker game with the co-founder of BTC China Bobby Lee and tech investor Ron Cao.Īfter working at and OKCoin, he started Binance. With a computer science degree from McGill University, he began a career building trading systems, including a stint at Bloomberg, the parent company of Bloomberg News. The CFTC complaint noted that Binance had courted US institutions and directed “VIP” clients to open Binance accounts via shell companies.īinance’s ties with traditional banking channels have also recently frayed after Signature Bank, which had been supporting its dollar transactions, went under and Paysafe, which did the same for trades in the British pound, stopped the service due to regulatory risks.īorn in China, Mr Zhao moved to Vancouver when he was 12 and became a Canadian citizen. Institutions that have flirted with crypto will have to weigh new charges against the liquidity offered by the world’s largest exchange. Some crypto fans may well shrug off the charges, yet Binance’s many ties to traditional finance may now be at risk. ![]() ![]() The move will reverberate across an industry that boomed outside regulated finance in a decade of low interest rates – before Ponzi schemes, exchange mishaps and more helped snuff out speculative euphoria.įor critics, the charges will look like delayed justice for a firm that has for years refused to name a corporate parent or even its headquarters, amid allegations of corporate mismanagement.ĭiehard believers will either cling to the bull case that a new era of regulatory action will legitimise the industry – or will argue crypto needs to go back to the fringes to live up to its libertarian vision. ![]() In the US, where Binance started a separate platform in 2019, it has accounted for a more modest share of spot trading at nearly 7 per cent over the past year, Kaiko data show. In a popular product known as perpetual futures, Binance controlled a record 62 per cent of global volumes in 2022, a CoinGecko report shows. It is the kind of market heft that dwarfs the role of Apple or Samsung Electronics in the smartphone market, for example. ![]() So far in March, the exchange has accounted for about 70 per cent of all trading volumes across the spot market, compared with just 6 per cent for Coinbase Global, according to digital-asset data provider Kaiko. The company is the biggest target by far in a US regulatory crackdown that has engulfed other big players, from US exchange Coinbase Global to entrepreneur Justin Sun and fallen algorithmic stablecoin king Do Kwon.Īfter Mr Zhao co-founded the exchange in 2017 and embarked on an acquisition spree, Binance has morphed into a brokerage, digital wallet, venture fund, custody service, data provider, digital-art marketplace and token issuer – all in one. ![]()
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