Binance Holdings Ltd, operator of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange Binance.com, has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay more than US$4 billion following legal action taken against it by United States authorities.
Binance’s founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, also pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) programme, in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and has resigned as CEO.
This follows a US Justice Department investigation into alleged violations related to the BSA, failure by Binance to register in the US as a money transmitting business, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
"Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit. Its willful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform," says Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen.
"Today’s historic penalties and monitorship to ensure compliance with US law and regulations mark a milestone for the virtual currency industry. Any institution, wherever located, that wants to reap the benefits of the US financial system must also play by the rules that keep us all safe from terrorists, foreign adversaries, and crime or face the consequences."
Binance admitted to prioritizing growth and profits over compliance with US law, US authorities say.
"Instead of complying with US law, in 2019, Binance [a Cayman Islands company] announced that it would block US customers and launched a separate US exchange, Binance.US. Despite this announcement, Binance took steps to maintain a substantial number of US. customers. In particular, Binance focused on retaining valuable 'VIP' customers, which were responsible for a large portion of Binance’s trading volume and revenue. These VIP customers were critical to Binance’s business because they helped provide the necessary liquidity to facilitate trades of digital assets. For example, Binance executives, including Zhao, made a plan to contact VIP customers and help the VIP register a new account for an offshore entity and transfer holdings to that account. Binance employees also called U.S. VIPs to encourage them to provide information that suggested the customer was not located in the United States," the Department of Justice says.
Of Zhao, the Department of Justice says he; "Knowingly operated a financial platform without basic anti-money laundering safeguards, the company caused illegal transactions between US users and users in sanctioned jurisdictions such as Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine – transactions for which Binance profited with significant fees."
In a tweet Zhao acknowledges he has stepped down as Binance CEO. He will reportedly pay a US$50 million fine.
"Admittedly, it was not easy to let go emotionally. But I know it is the right thing to do. I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself," Zhao says.
He went on to say he was "proud" the resolutions with the US agencies don't allege that Binance misappropriated any user funds, or that Binance engaged in any market manipulation."
"Funds are SAFU!"
Binance New Zealand launched last year. Binance NZ is registered on the NZ financial service providers' register under the name Investbybit Ltd. Its shareholder is listed as Binance (AP) Holdings Ltd, an Irish company.
The Department of Justice statement, and tweet from Zhao are below.
Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution
Binance Admits It Engaged in Anti-Money Laundering, Unlicensed Money Transmitting, and Sanctions Violations in Largest Corporate Resolution to Include Criminal Charges for an Executive
Binance Holdings Limited (Binance), the entity that operates the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.com, pleaded guilty today and has agreed to pay over $4 billion to resolve the Justice Department’s investigation into violations related to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), failure to register as a money transmitting business, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Binance’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Changpeng Zhao, a Canadian national, also pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program, in violation of the BSA and has resigned as CEO of Binance.
Binance’s guilty plea is part of coordinated resolutions with the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
“Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed – now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “In just the past month, the Justice Department has successfully prosecuted the CEOs of two of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges in two separate criminal cases. The message here should be clear: using new technology to break the law does not make you a disruptor, it makes you a criminal.”
“Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit. Its willful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “Today’s historic penalties and monitorship to ensure compliance with U.S. law and regulations mark a milestone for the virtual currency industry. Any institution, wherever located, that wants to reap the benefits of the U.S. financial system must also play by the rules that keep us all safe from terrorists, foreign adversaries, and crime or face the consequences.”
“A corporate strategy that puts profits over compliance isn’t a path to riches; it’s a path to federal prosecution,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “Today’s charges and guilty pleas – combined with a more than $4 billion financial penalty – sends an unmistakable message to crypto and defi companies: if you serve U.S. customers, you must obey U.S. law.”
“Changpeng Zhao made Binance, the company he founded and ran as CEO, into the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by targeting U.S. customers, but refused to comply with U.S. law,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Binance’s and Zhao’s willful violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws threatened the U.S. financial system and our national security, and each of them has now pleaded guilty. Make no mistake: when you place profits over compliance with the law, you will answer for your crimes in the United States.”
“Binance’s crimes gave sanctioned customers unfettered access to American capital and financial services,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD). “This prosecution is a warning that companies that do not build sanctions compliance into their services face serious criminal penalties, as do the executives who lead them.”
“From the beginning of its existence, Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao chose growth and personal wealth over following financial regulations aimed at stopping the laundering of criminal cash,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman for the Western District of Washington. “Because Changpeng Zhao knowingly operated a financial platform without basic anti-money laundering safeguards, the company caused illegal transactions between U.S. users and users in sanctioned jurisdictions such as Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine – transactions for which Binance profited with significant fees.”
“Binance’s activities undermined the foundation of safe and sound financial markets by intentionally avoiding basic, fundamental obligations that apply to exchanges, all the while collecting approximately $1.35 billion in trading fees from U.S. customers,” said Chairman Rostin Behnam of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). “American investors, small and large, have demonstrated eagerness to incorporate digital asset products into their portfolios. It is our duty to ensure that when they do so, the full protections afforded by our regulatory oversight are in place, and that illegal and illicit conduct is swiftly addressed. When, as here, an entity goes even further, deliberately avoiding to employ meaningful access controls, intentionally avoiding knowing customers’ identities, and actively concealing the presence of U.S. customers on its platforms, there is no question that the CFTC will strike hard and aggressively.”
“When you put growth above compliance, you end up in hot water,” said Chief Jim Lee of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Our team of investigators uncovered that Binance disregarded anti-money laundering Know Your Customer laws, failed to register as a money transmitter, and willfully violated U.S. sanctions tied to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. When you do so, your business becomes a playground for bad actors. Hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit proceeds from ransomware variants, darknet transactions, and various internet-related scams moved through Binance in an attempt to evade detection by law enforcement.”
According to court documents, Binance admitted to prioritizing growth and profits over compliance with U.S. law. Binance launched in 2017 and focused on attracting high-volume customers, including U.S.-based customers. Binance quickly became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, with the greatest share of its customers coming from the United States. As a result of serving U.S. customers, Binance was required to register with FinCEN as a money services business and to implement an effective AML program that was reasonably designed to prevent Binance from being used to facilitate money laundering. Binance chose not to comply with U.S. law and failed to implement controls and procedures to prevent money laundering. Binance also did not implement controls that would have prevented U.S. customers from conducting transactions with customers in sanctioned jurisdictions, despite knowing that the system it used to match customers for transactions would necessarily cause transactions in violation of IEEPA.
Instead of complying with U.S. law, in 2019, Binance announced that it would block U.S. customers and launched a separate U.S. exchange, Binance.US. Despite this announcement, Binance took steps to maintain a substantial number of U.S. customers. In particular, Binance focused on retaining valuable “VIP” customers, which were responsible for a large portion of Binance’s trading volume and revenue. These VIP customers were critical to Binance’s business because they helped provide the necessary liquidity to facilitate trades of digital assets. For example, Binance executives, including Zhao, made a plan to contact VIP customers and help the VIP register a new account for an offshore entity and transfer holdings to that account. Binance employees also called U.S. VIPs to encourage them to provide information that suggested the customer was not located in the United States.
Binance also did not implement the core components of an effective AML program: Binance did not implement comprehensive know-your-customer (KYC) protocols or systematically monitor transactions, and Binance never filed a suspicious activity report (SAR) with FinCEN. For years, Binance allowed users to open accounts and trade without submitting any identifying information beyond an email address. Binance began requiring all users to provide KYC information in August 2021 but allowed users who had not provided KYC to continue trading on the exchange until May 2022. Between August 2017 and October 2022, U.S. users, including VIPs, conducted trillions of dollars in transactions on the platform, generating over $1.6 billion in profit for Binance.
As Binance’s internal communications showed, Binance’s compliance employees recognized that Binance did not have protocols to flag or report transactions for money laundering risks, which employees recognized would attract criminals to the exchange. As one compliance employee wrote, “we need a banner ‘is washing drug money too hard these days - come to binance we got cake for you.’” Due in part to Binance’s failure to implement an effective AML program, illicit actors used Binance’s exchange in various ways, including conducting transactions for mixing services that obfuscated the source and ownership of cryptocurrency; transferring illicit proceeds from ransomware variants; and moving proceeds of darknet market transactions, exchange hacks, and various internet-related scams.
Binance also knew that U.S. sanctions laws prohibited U.S. persons – including its U.S. customers – from trading with its customers subject to U.S. sanctions, including customers in comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions, such as Iran. Binance knew that it had a significant number of users from comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions and a substantial number of U.S. users and that its matching engine would necessarily cause U.S. users to transact with users in sanctioned jurisdictions in violation of U.S. law. Nonetheless, Binance did not implement controls that would prevent U.S. users from trading with users in Iran; and, because of this intentional failure, between January 2018 and May 2022, Binance willfully caused over $898 million in trades between U.S. users and users ordinarily resident in Iran.
As part of the plea agreement, Binance has agreed to forfeit $2,510,650,588 and to pay a criminal fine of $1,805,475,575 for a total financial penalty of $4,316,126,163. Binance has also agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years and remediate and enhance their anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs. Binance separately has also reached agreements with the CFTC, FinCEN, and OFAC, and the Department will credit approximately $1.8 billion toward those resolutions.
The Department reached its resolution with Binance based on a number of factors, including the nature, seriousness, and pervasiveness of the offense, as a result of which Binance processed billions of dollars of cryptocurrency transactions for U.S. persons and caused U.S. customers to engage in transactions in violation of U.S. sanctions. Binance did not make a timely and voluntary disclosure of wrongdoing, but it received partial credit for its cooperation with the Department’s investigation, and it has taken steps to remediate its compliance program. Binance did not receive full credit for its cooperation because it delayed producing relevant evidence, including recorded meetings in which Binance executives discussed U.S. legal requirements. Accordingly, the total criminal penalty reflects a 20% reduction off the bottom of the applicable U.S. sentencing guidelines fine range.
In addition, according to court documents, Zhao, Binance’s founder, owner, and CEO, admitted that he understood that Binance served U.S. users and was thus required to register with FinCEN and implement an effective AML program. Zhao knew that U.S. users were essential to Binance’s growth and were a significant source of revenue and knew that an effective AML program would include KYC protocols that would mean that some customers would choose not to use Binance. Zhao told employees it was “better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” and prioritized Binance’s growth over compliance with U.S. law. Without an effective AML program, Binance caused transactions between U.S. users and users in jurisdictions subject to U.S. sanctions. These illegal transactions were a clear and foreseeable result of Zhao’s decision to prioritize Binance’s profit and growth over compliance with the BSA.
IRS-CI is investigating the case. The case is being prosecuted by Bank Integrity Unit Deputy Chief and National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team Deputy Director Kevin Mosley and Trial Attorney Elizabeth Carr of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), Trial Attorneys Beau Barnes and Alex Wharton of NSD’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES), and Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Mike Dion for the Western District of Washington. Trial Attorney Julia Jarrett, formerly of MLARS and currently an AUSA for the District of Oregon, and Trial Attorney Matthew Anzaldi, formerly of CES and currently with NSD’s National Security Cyber Section, made substantial contributions to this investigation and prosecution.
MLARS’s Bank Integrity Unit investigates and prosecutes banks and other financial institutions, including their officers, managers, and employees, whose actions threaten the integrity of the individual institution or the wider financial system. The Criminal Division has surged resources to the Bank Integrity Unit, which has imposed over $12 billion in penalties on financial institutions for sanctions violations over the last decade. NSD’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section investigates and prosecutes individuals and corporations for violations of export control and sanctions laws, in addition to other national security crimes. NSD continues to expand its corporate enforcement efforts – including growing the ranks of prosecutors dedicated to this work and establishing a Chief Counsel and Deputy Chief Counsel for Corporate Enforcement.
And here's Zhao's tweet.
Today, I stepped down as CEO of Binance. Admittedly, it was not easy to let go emotionally. But I know it is the right thing to do. I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 21, 2023
Binance is no longer a baby. It is…
57 Comments
I'll answer that with a question: How many in the banking world went to jail over the GFC?
They all knew about the poor quality mortgages they were writing up, selling, packaging, reselling, repackaging, and reselling, knowing full well someone, sometime would be stuck with the consequences, while the rest got rich.
The answer to that shows you:
1./ The level of influence the banking world has at federal level
2./ The depths the US govt will go to maintain their global status (they could full well have prosecuted hundreds if not thousands for knowing)
3./ The true nature and trustworthiness of the banking sector
Don't think it will crash but it's one of those high returns, high risk investment. I know some made a killing and raved on about it (as well as losing bucket loads, but they won't tell you)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-18/how-north-korea-makes-a-fortune-…
When binance or ftx collapse, crypto aficionados turn bullish saying "The system is getting rid of bad actors". They will buy bitcoin, and then point that the price is going up.
Binance has not collapsed. In fact, it has complied with the Japan Financial Service Agency's strict vetting and has been cleared to operate in the Japan market. We're talking the most rigorous crypto markets in the world. Not the clown show that is the U.S. and exchange regulation.
Binance hasn't collapsed, yes. But the point remains. Binance has been facilitating all kinds of bad actors. Just look at the rap sheet. It is not new knowledge how crypto is used by all kinds of criminals and non state actors.
There are problems with the current system, but crypto anarchy is not an answer. At best it is a get rich quick scheme which relies on the bigger fool theory.
The US dollar hasn't collapsed, yes. (Unless you count losing 98% of it's purchasing power) But the point remains. The US dollar has been facilitating all kinds of bad actors. Just look at the rap sheet. It is not new knowledge how the US dollar is used by all kinds of criminals and non state actors.
When a major bank fails, FIAT aficionados turn bullish saying "The system is getting rid of bad actors". The State will bail out the "bad actors" and socialize the losses.
Nothing can ever convince FIAT aficionados to abandon their most cherished beliefs..even inflation or money printing?
Perhaps. I still think they are in to make money, no other reason. That won't shake the fiat foundations. It will give some more legitimacy I guess. We shall see.
Edit: Bay, you are hard to keep up with. Yes, a demolition will make you very rich I suppose. I honestly wont resent you, your antagonism is nothing if not unwarranted. Good Luck 👍
But was it not intended to be a "real" currency, a digital means of exchange, a new gold standard to defeat the fiat money/debt printer?
Instead it's been infected by the same scarcity, speculative, "store of value", asset investment mania, negating any beneficial use of the "blockchain" technology underlying it?
Given that it's measured by fiat tokens, should the $ currency collapse how will it be "valued" then with nothing backing it? How will it be of any benefit should the shit hit the fan in a real recession/depression situation?
Crypto replaces fiat as a means is exchange when the country's financial system becomes non functional. For transactions denominated in crypto where it's solely used as a means of exchange, it's price relative to currencies becomes irrelevant. Plenty of examples overseas.
The contention between the crypto bros and the fiat stalwarts is more about whether crypto is an effective store of value, a speculator's heroine or a valueless façade
Crypto is fine if a populations fiat becomes unstable or crashes hard like the Turkish Lira, however if one were to take this further, in a tanked economy that is truly spent and people are having bank runs, there's the argument that it is only worth the power that;s needed to access it, as Fiat is to the paper it's printed on.
The contention between the crypto bros and the fiat stalwarts is more about whether crypto is an effective store of value, a speculator's heroine or a valueless façade
I think there are many crypto bros who believe that 99% of cryptos will die. That's not really much different to the fiat cheerleaders (except the jihadists who claim ol' ratty is going to zero).
Anyway, IMO, more of the crypto bros have done more of the hard yards in terms of understanding the space than the fiat cheerleaders. Sure you have some people hired to research about the space for various thinktanks and orgns like the BIS and come out with a thumbs down. However, those people tend to be like puppets anyway - malleable and hired to push the narrative for vested interests.
https://cassels.com/insights/sec-declares-bitcoin-and-ether-as-non-secu… makes it much clearer.
Bitcoin is still a crypto, its just not considered a security by the SEC.
Now that CZ and Binance have been removed from the field, the SEC can approve the spot ETF.
And Blackrock, Fidelity, Invesco and other large players can take over.
This is how the game is played.
It still raises questions how the SEC could launch numerous lawsuits against almost every exchange in the U.S. market, yet seemingly overlook the largest Ponzi scheme in history - FTX.
Yup it's all pretty obvious. The playing field has been in the process of being cleared for a while, so the old boys club can take over.
Anyone who seriously thinks BTC is going away, should have a hard look at their biases and critical thinking skills.
The integration into Trad Fi is only beginning to ramp up, and it's no secret. The head of the world's largest money manager is directly telling you.
Larry Fink 2017 - Bitcoin is an index of money laundering.
Larry Fink 2023 - We are hearing from clients around the world about the need for crypto. Bitcoin will revolutionize finance and is digitising gold in many ways. It’s going to transcend any one currency. Instead of investing in gold as a hedge against inflation, a hedge against the onerous problems of any one country, or the devaluation of your currency whatever country you’re in – let’s be clear, bitcoin is an international asset, it’s not based on any one currency and so it can represent an asset that people can play as an alternative. I believe that crypto will play that type of role as a flight to quality.
Sure... it couldn't possibly be that unreliable untrustworthy actors who participated in market manipulation in the investment market starting their own asset base and managing it like a dodging unregulated exchange could be held accountable for wrongdoing for anything in their lives. After all they are selling those online artificial assets like hotcakes to even more gullible people who think they have any level of security or ethics. Yep there is no risk inherent in such a business of fraud, market manipulation and criminal actions by those operating such exchanges... Geez did you even see the ads for Binance they breach NZ advertising standards for starters, at a minimum they grossly misrepresented the service and were trading customers private details breaching NZ privacy laws as well. If you ever find yourself using an exchange to acquire or trade cryptocurrency you are doing it wrong and are just resorting to even worse services and less customer protections. It is like running to the arms of the Jigsaw killer after your parents said you were grounded for not tidying your room.
Baywatch ..... glad your shared those stats !
If they can do this to Binance, what about HSBC a little while ago ! .....I bet no one went to jail there and if you were going to launder any funds, CASH is the way to go, as virtually untraceable. Any transaction with Crypto is on a public blockchain, for all to see.
Psychologically, so many hypocritical "stuck in the mud" boomers et al are sh*t scared of Crypto, as they can see the "gravy train" being derailed. As money in itself should be a FINITE resource, not constantly being "created" for the benefit of so few.
The days of governments and central banks "playing around" and manipulating with a sovereign country's money has to end. This is how corporations become so big - while governments get too much control, spend money like lolly water, then cut services and want the taxpayer to pay it all back ie through higher interest rates, taxes etc . It's just a "circus" and with taxation, inflation and interest rates, they can manipulate the money supply and the velocity of money in circulation.
With Crypto, bring it on I say - will just show that when a financial resource has a finite supply, it's "TRUE" market worth will be shown.
Hilariously it pales in comparison to trading even for a single country and sadly cannot even handle the number of transactions for one either. A difficulty of scaling and the power needed to do so becomes an exponential problem that countries literally have found it easier to resume trade through goods swapping for most trades then resorting to a system that would drain their power needed for things like hospitals, businesses, heating.
I myself own several user accounts and I can tell you now I do not represent several people with them. There is a big difference between unique users and someone trading between their own wallets and transactions which represent no change at all to ownership just burning power needlessly, (more often than not using coal powered servers to do so). I also have several bank accounts with the same bank but that does not get counted as several people and normally while transferring from one account to another is still a transaction it does not represent trading.
Sometimes you move between accounts just to ride the waves or for storage reasons. Most real trades in crypto are sadly the small movements of the bots traders setup. So AI swapping between AI. I myself have tested and run several bots in my time, they also do not represent different people or suitable monetary payments for goods or services but literally just micro transactions that you can run hundreds of times in an hour (it is much slower in crypto though than exchange AI where nano seconds of km distance can give a killer advantage to manipulate a market).
Then there is the washing effect you can do to have numerous dummy mid accounts setup to pass transactions through to dilute the trail from the source to the end account. This actually is a service you can acquire and the mid accounts are not unique to each person either and can have no identifying owner. Admittedly this is the money laundering part and it can be easier to do through crypto with poorer regulations and controls so stolen funds can never be returned or the offenders held to much account. Is there any chance in tracking where the money went though? Yes there are some really badly run and badly coded washing services and they can be tracked to the endpoint by a student with internet access. However there are several operating washing services that do their job well enough that authorities cannot track down the perpetrators of crypto thefts. (However the biggest crypto thieves are still the exchange operators themselves NEVER TRUST EXCHANGES)
But sure how cute you think those numbers represent real unique people doing actual trading transactions with other people. There is a new one "born every minute".
Related wisdom on all this from Balaji:
I don’t think enough people see this for what it is. A Digital Iron Curtain is gradually descending over the West.
- It’s the FedNow quasi-CBDC
- It’s the 87000 agents
- It’s stepped up financial surveillance
- It’s attacks on every exchange
- It’s expanded civil forfeiture
All of this is against the backdrop of sovereign debt crisis, commercial real estate collapse, and a historical crash in bond prices. Basically, the US is bankrupt many times over, Western central banks themselves need bailouts, and DC is making it ever harder to exit to crypto.
So if you’re caught on the blue side when the music stops, there’s a scenario where everything you own will be seized to pay the state’s unpayable debts. Just like the countless examples of financial repression and communist wealth seizure that happened in the 20th century, which Dalio among others has tabulated.
Yeah, I know, many don’t think it can happen. Despite massive fires burning down freeways, mobs surrounding cars, open air drug dealing, soaring prices and feces, rampant looting and criminality…somehow it doesn’t register with them and they still think it’s the 1950s or something.
They’re caught in the illusion of Barbie rather than the reality of BLM. They haven’t thought through how nasty these mobs will get when the money runs out. They don’t know what the early Soviet era was like, the combination of anarchy and tyranny, of total lawlessness and lawless seizure.
For everyone else who has some inkling of what may come, they’ll need to choose which side of that Digital Iron Curtain they land up on. Red states are probably better than blue. And foreign states are probably safer than red. A good rule of thumb is to be as far away financially, physically, and socially from bankrupt Blue America as possible.
Because if 2008 was about bank bailouts, soon we’re going to see central bank bailouts. Reverse bailouts, where your currency is debased to bail out the government. QE wasn’t free.
Clever cookie
If Bitcoin crashes so will the rest. Who thinks central banks around the world are going to let crypto eat into their game. If the US government want to they will take it down in some way. Many central banks have already started digital currencies and at the end of the day 1.4 trillion as a market cap is peanuts for US government
If central banks get annoyed by Bitcoin as they don’t have control over it would disappear very fast, believe me if one of the large players gets wind the FED is releasing own digital currency and doesn’t want any competition goodbye Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
If central banks get annoyed by Bitcoin as they don’t have control over it would disappear very fast, believe me if one of the large players gets wind the FED is releasing own digital currency and doesn’t want any competition goodbye Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
You think BTC owners want to exchange BTC for FedCoin? Why?
Just like in the 70’s stopped people using gold, once US release digital currency with a blockchain it will not want any competition, Bitcoin is backed by nothing if there was a food shortage would you trade your chicken for some numbers. Any government or large company could start own digital currency and not accept Bitcoin, it’s a ponzi if 10% of people holding Bitcoin sold overnight it would be worth zero by next day.
Pretty much what I have said a number of times here but the Bitcoin Bro's don't get it. Bitcoin is tied to Fiat and Fiat only. If the banks go digital and there is no longer a medium of exchange then Bitcoin is either worthless or is has to stand on its own two feet. You already know Bitcoin will be worthless because there will be a massive run to the exits given a chance.
One issue with a government or large company creating its own digital currency is that it would be centrally controlled, this could be concerning as its possible it could be tied to a social credit score for example(remember the Canadian truckers), so if you said something on social media that the government or business didn’t like, they could take or disable ‘your’ digital money, also they could decide you drink too much beer and stop you from spending ‘your‘ digital money on beer(or whatever). Basically, your money will be less yours than it is now.
One of the main features of Bitcoin is the fact its decentralized and not controlled by an individual or entity, no other crypto has this feature, which is why Bitcoin is seen differently, even by the likes of the SEC. In the US there are about 5 large financial institutions who have partitioned the SEC for the permission to set up a Bitcoin ETF, they would not be doing that without doing their due diligence.
If this doesn't make you think, nothing will. Look at how cheap houses are getting…in Bitcoin!
US Median Home Price in #Bitcoin
2012 - 43,000 BTC
2013 - 19,000 BTC
2014 - 340 BTC
2015 - 920 BTC
2016 - 697 BTC
2017 - 306 BTC
2018 - 18 BTC
2019 - 78 BTC
2020 - 44 BTC
2021 - 12 BTC
2022 - 9 BTC
2023 - 25 BTC
August, 2023 - 16 BTC
It's an approximation but if someone can be bothered this could easily be done using NZ median house prices and average Bitcoin price in NZD, its all historic and published.
QE wasn't free
Something that so many don't understand in their tangible lives dealing with only what is around them. Many labelled conspiracy theorists are becoming more and more right by the week.
The US simply cannot come out of this without losing their global status and likely the reserve currency eventually, as the cycle Dalio explains is based on human behaviour and we are always doomed to repeat history. The Empire is too big and the cost of maintaining it is too great with all of the trouble they have in house on land already and the level of debt.
I enjoy the ongoing debate between crypto enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts under any column related to the topic. I have a question for anyone still reading this column:
When will we know who is right and who is wrong? And how will we know? And if we don't know yet, why not?
You forgot the third group who trade in both but laugh at how simple and poorly some of these so called "crypto enthusiasts" understand the technology and the market transactions that they have infinite trust for known dodgy exchanges no tech minded person would touch with a ten foot pole. They have never heard of trading bots or transaction washing or even basic money laundering account services either. It is almost like they think all accounts equal real people and real trading... so cute and silly. It is actually far easier to see market manipulation openly with crypto, that was the "feature" of it but some traders are willfully blind to it.
Please please please keep learning about the technology because if you are not capable of seeing the sharks then you are shark food.
Binance should have been burned, it should be removed as it was a known haven for corrupt service practices & poorly managed insecure centralization. No true crypto fan would ever vote for keeping them operating. Sadly a mere fine keeps them ticking over.
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