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| Take a look at the hits from today's Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Binance's new CEO appointment following Changpeng Zhao's resignation under a plea deal,
- Celsius Network's decision to scale back the business of its reorganized firm,
- A recent study revealing the most popular personalities in the crypto space, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has recently appointed its former head of regional markets, Richard Teng, as its new CEO. The move came right after co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) stepped down from his CEO role at the firm as part of a settlement deal with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Treasury Department, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). More: - Following the negotiations with U.S. regulators, Binance and CZ pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering requirements and U.S. sanctions.
- The settlement will see Binance paying a $4.3B fine, one of the largest-ever corporate penalties in U.S. history, while being able to continue its operations.
- Binance was charged with three counts, including money laundering, unlicensed money-transmitting business operations, and sanction violations, after admitting that it allowed crypto transactions on its platform with terrorist groups, such as Hamas, Al Qaeda, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
- As part of the plea deal, Zhao will pay a separate $50M penalty and will not be able to engage in the management of the company for three years.
- The former CEO currently faces up to 10 years in prison, though the prosecutors expect him to get no more than 18 months under the deal.
- Zhao was released on a $175M bond and allowed to return to his home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while waiting for sentencing, though the UAE does not have a direct extradition treaty with the U.S.
Zoom Out: - Binance also faced another lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S. earlier this year, which involved the allegation of mishandling customer funds.
- In an official statement, Binance clarified that its latest settlement deal did not include any allegations related to the misappropriation of user funds or market manipulation.
- The settlement did not resolve the SEC's case.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: A recent study conducted by CoinLedger has revealed the ten most popular personalities in the crypto space by their followers on X and Instagram combined, which makes them very influential in the digital asset market. Crypto exchange Binance's recently-resigned CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), ranked first on the list, with 9.07 million followers on social media. In the top five, CZ was followed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, digital payments company Block CEO Jack Dorsey, business intelligence firm MicroStrategy's Bitcoin advocate executive chairman Michael Saylor, and investment management firm ARK Invest's crypto-friendly CEO Cathie Wood, respectively. Relevance: On the other hand, bankrupt crypto exchange FTX's former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has only managed to sit in the last spot among the top 10, though he was once regarded as the golden boy of crypto and a rising star for the industry. His position before the bankruptcy made him one of the most prominent figures of recent times, especially in finance. However, FTX's collapse and the following scandals caused his popularity to gradually decline. Most recently, SBF was found guilty of all the seven criminal charges brought against him by the U.S. prosecutors after a month-long trial process. The charges against the 31-year-old former executive included wire fraud, money laundering, and misappropriation of customer funds. Brands that should care: On the other hand, another recent study similarly listed the largest crypto-related companies by their revenue as of the end of 2022. The study results pointed out that the U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase closed last year as the biggest crypto company. In the top five, Coinbase was followed by Canaan, Galaxy Digital Holdings, Riot Blockchain, and Silvergate Capital, respectively. | | | |
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| 3 | | Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global has filed a new lawsuit against the U.S.-based crypto exchange Gemini to recover $689.3M of preferential transfers. The collapsed firm claimed that Gemini withdrew an aggregate gross amount of $689.3M at the expense of other creditors within the 90-day period before it filed for bankruptcy. More: - The bankruptcy rules allow a company to recover transfers that occur within 90 days before going bankrupt.
- Genesis Global and Gemini were once business partners over a crypto lending service dubbed Earn.
- Earn, launched in 2021, allowed Gemini users to lend their crypto assets through Genesis to generate interest.
- However, Genesis Global's bankruptcy in January caused the product to be halted, making some customer funds stuck.
- The partnership has also dragged both firms into legal proceedings after the bankruptcy as they sought to recover their stuck funds.
- The CEOs of the two companies accused each other of non-cooperation, fraud, and deception.
- Genesis Global and Gemini were also sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January over the allegation that the Earn product offered unregistered securities.
Zoom Out: - Genesis Global filed for bankruptcy in January after freezing withdrawals in November 2022, mainly due to its exposure to the collapses of the crypto exchange FTX and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
- The bankruptcy filings showed that the lender owed more than $3.5B to its top 50 creditors, including crypto exchange Gemini.
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| 4 | | The collapsed crypto lender Celsius Network has recently modified its bankruptcy plan, which would allow the firm to repay its customers and transform into a new company owned by creditors, after receiving feedback from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm pointed out that the reorganized company would only focus on Bitcoin (BTC) mining under the new plan. More: - The previous plan envisioned the new firm to earn staking fees by validating blockchain-based transactions and managing its legacy portfolio of crypto loans, too.
- However, the restructuring plan was modified around ten days after it was approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn.
- The new firm will be managed by Fahrenheit LLC, a crypto consortium involving blockchain-based venture capital (VC) firm Arrington Capital and crypto miner U.S. Bitcoin Corp.
- As part of the modified plan, Celsius Network will hold back and liquidate certain assets instead of transferring them to the reorganized company.
- The company said the reduction in the scale of the new firm's business would pave the way for lower management fees and an increase in the amount of crypto funds to be returned to customers.
- The collapsed firm expects to receive court approval for the modified plan in the coming weeks and to start repaying its customers in January 2024, exiting bankruptcy.
Zoom Out: - Celsius Network filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022 with more than $1B in debt, mainly due to its liquidity issues and the crypto market downturn triggered by the multi-billion-dollar Terra ecosystem's collapse.
- Alex Mashinsky, the company's CEO at the time of bankruptcy, was arrested by U.S. law enforcement agencies in July with charges of seven counts related to the collapse, to which he pleaded not guilty, and was released on bail pending trial.
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| 5 | | The Belgian government has announced its plans to accelerate the development of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), a European blockchain infrastructure project. The officials pointed out that rebooting the project is one of their four priorities for Belgium's presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) in early 2024. More: - The other three priorities include matters related to AI, online anonymity, and digital economy skills.
- The project aims to facilitate the secure storage of official documents, such as driving licenses and property titles, and public administration tasks like verifying those documents in all 27 member states of the EU.
- Belgium's Secretary of State for Digitization, Mathieu Michel, said the project could also support the digital euro infrastructure.
- The EBSI project was first established by the European Commission, the governing body of the EU, in 2018.
- The rebooted project will be renamed Europeum, and the head office of the project will be located in Belgium.
- Italy, Croatia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Luxembourg, and Romania have all already signed the proposed public blockchain plan.
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| 6 | | Popular crypto data platform CoinGecko has purchased NFT data startup Zash, making the first acquisition in its history. The terms and financial details of the sales deal have yet to be disclosed. More: - As part of the acquisition, Zash's NFT data will be integrated into CoinGecko's platform by Q2 2024.
- The entire Zash team will join CoinGecko.
- Web3 Studios served as the financial advisor for the acquisition.
- Zash, founded in 2021, currently offers NFT data across 87 unique marketplaces, or a total of 102 marketplaces, on many blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana.
- CoinGecko's co-founder and CEO, TM Lee, said they found Zash unparalleled after evaluating all existing NFT data providers in the market.
- Lee also added that the team behind Zash has built a remarkable product with the most comprehensive NFT data coverage in the market.
Zoom Out: - CoinGecko's rival CoinMarketCap was also acquired by Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, in 2020.
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- Japanese bankrupt crypto exchange Mt. Gox's trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, has sent an email to creditors, announcing their plans to start the first repayments in cash by the end of the year.
- A new class-action lawsuit has accused the U.S.-based tech giant Apple of violating anti-trust laws by restricting peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto payments.
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 | Staff Writer | | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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