Key Points
Welcome to Tuesday. Here’s what’s happening in the crypto world today:
- CFTC files a lawsuit against Binance for offering unregistered derivatives products.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao defends the exchange’s compliance measures.
- Bitcoin drops below $27,000 following news of the Binance lawsuit.
CFTC files a lawsuit against Binance
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, on Monday. The suit alleges that the company knowingly provided unregistered crypto derivatives products in the U.S., which violates federal law. The lawsuit, submitted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, claims that Binance operated a derivatives trading operation in the U.S., offering trades for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ether, litecoin (LTC), tether (USDT), and binance USD (BUSD). The lawsuit refers to all of these as commodities and further alleges that the company, under Zhao’s leadership, instructed its employees to disguise their locations using virtual private networks.
Binance CEO defends the exchange’s compliance measures.
In a blog post published on Monday, Zhao contested the lawsuit’s “incomplete recitation of facts,” stating that “we do not agree with the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the complaint” and expressing disappointment at the complaint’s unexpected nature. Zhao highlighted the exchange giant’s compliance technology, including its know-your-customer program. He mentioned that the exchange employs 750 compliance team members, many of whom have prior law enforcement and regulatory agency experience, and pointed out that the company holds 16 licenses and registrations worldwide.
Bitcoin drops below $27,000 following news of the Binance lawsuit.
Following news of the lawsuit, bitcoin’s value fell below $27,000, reaching its lowest point since March 17. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap has declined by 5% in the last 24 hours, now trading at around $26,700. Binance coin (BNB) also experienced a 5% drop. Matteo Bottacini, a trader at Crypto Finance AG, wrote in a morning note that investors are adopting long positions in ether and other altcoins while taking short positions in bitcoin. “My bias is that upside for BTC now looks limited to the $30Ks, while ETH and most of the altcoins are still waiting for the exploit,” he wrote. “Similarly, on the way down, despite BTC being the mega-cap here, I can easily see it trading in the $25k-$22.5k range.”
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