binance The firm approached Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in 2018 and 2019 to become an advisor. This is according to a new Bombshell report published by wall street journal on Sunday, citing messages and documents from 2018 to 2020 that claim Binance launched a campaign to “neutralize” US authorities for fear of prosecution.
At the time, Gensler was teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had previously served as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). at that time, a binance The staffer told colleagues that Gensler “is likely to go back to a regulatory seat if the Dems win the 2020 election”.
Gensler, who becomes SEC chairman in April 2021, declined an offer to become an advisor to Binance. However, Gensler was “generous in sharing licensing strategies” with Binance executives, according to Harry Zhou, who met with Gensler in October 2018 along with Ella Zhang, head of Binance’s venture capital division.
Gensler also had a video call with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in March 2019 to interview him for a cryptocurrency course he will begin teaching at MIT in the summer of 2019.
Binance fears regulatory crackdown
Binance’s efforts to butter up US regulators come amid fears that the cryptocurrency exchange could be the victim of a regulatory crackdown in the country. And US crypto has been on the rise in recent weeks, with the SEC recently taking action against Kraken over its crypto staking service and alleging USD-backed Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin issuer Paxos Regarding the issuance of an unlicensed security.
Meanwhile, according to reports in the crypto press over the weekend, the agency’s staff believe that Binance.US, Binance’s US subsidiary, is operating as an unregistered securities exchange. It is important to note that the views of the staff do not necessarily reflect those of the agency’s five commissioners, most of whom will be required to sign off on any enforcement action against Binance.US.
But commission chairman Gensler has said in the past that he thinks most crypto trading platforms should register as securities exchanges, which means they would have to follow the SEC’s disclosure and compliance guidelines.
Binance – The Dominant Exchange
Binance is too far away Largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, According to Coinmarketcap, the exchange saw a trading volume of over $11.1 billion in the last 24 hours. Coinbase, which came in second, pales in comparison with less than $1.0 billion in trading volume over the same time period.
According to The Block, Binance saw a total trading volume of $545 billion in February, which was more than 60% of the cryptocurrency market’s total trading volume of $878 billion for the month. But Binance’s dominance could come under threat if its US subsidiary starts facing higher levels of regulatory scrutiny/enforcement.
But that’s not to say that Binance’s American rivals like Coinbase aren’t facing similar problems. Coinbase is preparing to defend its staking service against the SECWhich views crypto staking services as an unregistered security offering.
