In this edition of the Bloomberg Crypto newsletter, Michael P. Regan ponders the potential punishment for Binance’s alleged crypto crimes:
What type of punishment might Binance and its leader Changpeng “CZ” Zhao deserve if found guilty of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s accusations that they allegedly allowed, and even facilitated, the illegal trading of crypto derivatives by people in the US?
CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam was asked this very question on CNBC, and he successfully dodged it, which makes sense for someone in that role. The complaint itself seeks injunctions that, in effect, could put CZ, his compliance officer Samuel Lin and Binance itself out of business in the US by prohibiting them from trading or ever registering as a commodity futures merchant, not to mention forcing them to disgorge their trading profits, revenue, salaries and other money earned by the alleged violations.
