附近上门

The filed 13 charges against the world鈥檚 largest crypto exchange , its co-founder , and other entities related to the exchange.

In the , the SEC alleges Zhao and Binance controlled customers鈥� assets on the platform and commingled or diverted billions of dollars of those assets as they desired, including to Sigma Chain, a European business Zhao owned and controlled.

It further alleges that while Zhao and Binance told U.S. customers they were restricted from transacting on the Binance.com international exchange, they allowed 鈥渉igh-value U.S. customers鈥� to trade on the platform.聽

U.S. customers instead were told they could transact on what was supposedly the independent trading platform Binance.US, but in fact that exchange was actually controlled by Zhao and Binance, the complaint also alleges.

In a , Binance said it is disappointed by the SEC鈥檚 decision to file charges and had been cooperating with investigators.

In the news

Of course, this is not the first time Binance and its founder have popped up in the news, having played a role in the collapse of .

Last fall, that Binance would sell its holdings of FTX鈥檚 native token, FTT, due to 鈥渞ecent revelations that have came to light鈥� about the token.

FTT prices dropped like a rock amid the controversy and FTX was thrown into disarray as withdrawals mounted.

Binance seemed to emerge as FTX鈥檚 knight in shining armor when Zhao his company would acquire FTX, but that deal quickly fell apart.

That led to the complete collapse of FTX and its founder鈥檚, , empire.聽

Finally in December, the SEC filed charges against disgraced FTX founder Bankman-Fried for 鈥渙rchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors.鈥�

Binance actually was one of FTX鈥檚 first lead investors, taking part in a round of undisclosed value in late 2019, according to 附近上门 data.

Illustration: Dom Guzman