Regulators Are Coming for Crypto, and Even Binance Isn’t Immune
The CFTC sues the largest trading platform and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, while Coinbase and a popular DeFi app are under scrutiny from the SEC.
Illustration: Petra Péterffy for Bloomberg Businessweek
Crypto’s been hit by a regulatory Big Bang. On March 27, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance, the world’s biggest digital-asset exchange, for allegedly allowing US customers to trade on its offshore platform even though it claimed not to. Just the week before, news broke that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing Coinbase Global Inc., the largest US crypto platform, as well as Sushi, a popular “decentralized” app for trading hundreds of tokens.
Also in March, the SEC sued crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun for allegedly manipulating the market—and accused celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul, of promoting Sun’s tokens without disclosing they were paid to do so. The implicit message from regulators: They’re out to tame almost every corner of the crypto market, whether Americans are trading on US exchanges or offshore ones, or on platforms run by traditional companies or on apps supposedly run by code.