Binance trade resurgent since historic penalty, exit of Changpeng Zhao

Binance trade resurgent since November fine, Zhao exit

Crypto exchange Binance — which pleaded guilty to US criminal charges and saw former CEO Changpeng Zhao step down as part of a $4.3 billion settlement — has experienced a trading revival, according to data from DefiLlama.

Since the exchange’s November 21 admission to the Department of Justice of money laundering and evading sanctions and Zhao’s exit, it has seen net inflows of $4.6 billion, far exceeding rivals OKX, Bybit, and Kraken, Bloomberg first reported.

Thus far in January, it has attracted $3.5 billion.

This is welcome news to current CEO Richard Teng, who is required to establish a global headquarters and appoint an independent monitor.

Binance also faces a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

German businessman charged in US with crypto fraud

A German businessman was charged in the US with scamming investors out of $150 million through crypto fraud, CNBC reported.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Horst Jicha founded and led USI Tech ostensibly as a crypto mining and trading platform, while actually defrauding investors in a “multilevel marketing scheme.”

Jicha was charged with securities fraud, conspiracies to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, the report said.

SEC asks comment on options trading of BlackRock’s IBIT

The SEC asked for public comments during a 21-day period that began January 19 regarding a Nasdaq proposal to allow options trading on BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF, called iShares Bitcoin Trust or IBIT.

James Seyffart, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF research analyst, said in a post on X that “options could be approved before end of February if SEC wants to move fast.”

IBIT reached $1 billion in assets under management on January 17, the first among 11 newly launched ETFs to do so, Reuters reported.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 0.05% today at $41,686.10.
• Ethereum is up 0.20% today at $2,475.44.

What we’re reading

• EigenLayer eyes new security model — DL News
• Standing up to government overreach is an American tradition. Now it’s crypto’s turn — Fortune
• This crypto fund says it tripled investors’ money. The catch? It’s owned by a convicted fraudster — DL News