Following Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao entering a guilty plea to US money laundering laws, Jesse Powell, founder of international crypto giant Kraken, took to X and noted the sweet taste of justice that other, more law-abiding crypto companies feel at Zhao’s guilty verdict.
Binance CEO pleads guilty to money laundering in $4.3bn settlement
Charged with breaking US anti-money-laundering laws, fraudulent customer funds management and conspiracy to commit fraud, Zhao now faces a $4.3bn settlement that must be paid to cover a federal investigation into Binance’s illegal activities by US Securities and Commission Exchange (SEC).
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To counter its reduced trading movement, Binance has founded a “separate” exchange named HKVAEX, operating from within Hong Kong, according to a report from South China Morning Post last month. Although these two companies share resources, HKVAEX has stated that neither company shares executives and that it is an independent virtual asset exchange platform that does not work within the confines of the Binance Group of companies.
Jesse Powell Source: LinkedIn
Kraken’s co-founder and Chariman, Jesse Powell, noted:
The last 12 months have answered 2 nagging questions from shareholders: 1. How are they going so fast? 2. How are they getting away with it? It’s hard to keep faith while your market share dwindles and the only enforcement that’s happening is against the good guys.
Powell also noted the easily targeted companies – Coinbase and Ripple – that have distracted the SEC from tackling the real offenders: in Powell’s opinion, Binance.
