By
Steve Muchoki
April 24th, 2024
Notably, seems that Binance has been prepared for the investigation. The exchange has spent tens of millions of dollars hiring the best cyber forensics team in the world.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, has said that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been “asking questions” about BNB, the native token of the exchange. As we have reported earlier this month, the regulator is now investigating if BNB was security at its initial coin offering in July 2017. Binance has not yet been subpoenaed but is constantly in contact with the authorities regarding the case.
During CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022, Changpeng Zhao said:
“We do communicate with every single regulator in the US, and also globally. … I don’t know what the media knows or not, but we have been collaborating with regulatory bodies and regulatory agencies very fully. And we strongly believe that BNB is not a security, we have strong legal opinions on that, so I don’t think that’s a risk for us.”
Earlier, SEC started investigating whether BNB was security at ICO back in July 2017. The regulator has not reached any conclusion yet. Besides, the SEC is watching Binance US arm, Binance.US, in order to ensure that the US business is appropriately operating independently from the crypto company. Furthermore, Binance is also under investigation in the US by the Justice Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Internal Revenue Service.
Notably, seems that Binance has been prepared for the investigation. The exchange has spent tens of millions of dollars hiring the best cyber forensics team in the world.
Changpeng Zhao’s Thoughts on Regulation
Closing the Consensus 2022 conference, Binance CEO has also shared his thoughts on crypto regulation in general. According to Changpeng Zhao, the industry is still in its early stage, therefore, failures are common.
“There’s no way to prevent failures in a new industry. The only way to prevent this is to do nothing and not innovate. Many of the models may work or not work that well, but the technology is here and has such potential. But there may be people who just won’t see that,” said he.
Further, Zhao noted that the industry should “self-regulate” to some extent:
“Some degree of regulation is necessary, but the industry also has the capacity to self-regulate in certain areas.”
According to Zhao, regulators should take a relaxed approach toward crypto and see how the industry is growing. Currently, this kind of approach is taken in Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, and more. These countries are the most crypto-friendly ones, as they are integrating blockchain in a compliant and safe way.