November Always a time to remember in Crypto, in a surprising turn of events, Changpeng Zhao, popularly known as CZ, announced his resignation as CEO of Binance, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges. CZ's decision to step down has shocked the crypto community and raises questions about the company's future direction. CZ was alleged guilty by the US Department of Justice and the CEO agreed to step down from his position, but there is still controversy as to whether CZ was really a criminal or whether the US government is still finding a way to get rid of him and binance US operation.
Remember, Binance has been in the crosshairs of US regulators since four years ago, when the US blocked Binance from providing services to people in the US. The Securities Exchange Commission also came after Binance opted for the company to offer security assets. But everything spiraled out of control earlier this year when the SEC filed a separate case against the exchange and CZ itself as a criminal, alleging the company violated laws in pursuit of growing market share. As a result, the company must pay the largest fine in US history.
What is Binance claimed for?
I know because Zhao doesn't run a bank, which is one of the reasons they're going after him, and claiming he violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance. The court's catalyst for Binance allowing many users to trade on its platform without proper Know Your Customer (KYC) systems is alleged in the lawsuit because Zhao believed that "requiring all customers to provide KYC information would meaning that some customers "would choose not to use Binance." and others would walk away from the compliance process and disrupt Binance's market share gains. The absence of these rules also allowed US users to trade with sanctioned users and criminal enterprises to conduct illegal activities .
How will this affect the market
For five years, binance will be reporting any transactions which will be examined in depth by an external watchdog headed under a new ceo, Richard Teng. The incidence may have been felt in the cryptocurrency markets, and we've seen cryptocurrency markets feel aftershocks after the incident. The market is experiencing a downward trend. Binance's native token BNBUSD even fell more than 5%, while bitcoin (BTCUSD) and Ether (ETHUSD) fell respectively.
Conclusion: The cryptocurrency industry has witnessed increased regulatory scrutiny around the world, and I believe not only binance is exempt from these challenges. But the change in regulatory decision will caused many damages to the Crypto market, infact this changing regulatory landscape was the one influenced CZ's decision to step down. Although CZ's resignation as CEO of Binance comes as a surprise to many, and his departure will poses challenges for the crypto market. But just a little time the market will bounce and everything will be okay in the space.