Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao has denied the allegations from the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission complaint, arguing the company “does not trade for profit or ‘manipulate’ the market under any circumstances.”
The chief executive shared his first official response to the lawsuit in a March 28 blog post.
The CEO stated that Binance “trades” in some situations, this is mainly to convert “from time to time” to cover costs in fiat or other cryptocurrencies, because the profits are in crypto.
“Personally, I have two accounts on Binance: one for Binance Card, one for crypto holdings. I eat my own dog food and store crypto on Binance.com. I also have to convert crypto from time to time to pay my money. personal expenses or for card.”
My Response to the CFTC Complaint | Binance Blog https://t.co/TadyotM7HN
– CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 27, 2023
Zhao also noted that Binance has a 90-day zero-day trading rule for employees, adding:
“This is to prevent employees from actively trading. We also prohibit employees from trading in Futures.
He further stressed that employees are prohibited from buying or selling coins where they obtain “personal information” about them.
“I observe the policy strictly. I have never participated in Binance Launchpad, Earn, Margin, or Futures. I know the best use of my time is to build a solid platform that serves users,” he added
Zhao called the new CFTC filing “unexpected and disappointing,” having worked with the regulator for more than two years. He also noted that the complaint “appears to contain incomplete facts.”
Regarding the compliance allegations, CZ said Binance.com has developed “best-in-class” technology to ensure compliance and currently has more than 750 people working to ensure that the business operates within the boundaries of anti-money laundering (AML) and knows you client laws ( KYC):
“To date, we’ve handled 55,000+ LE requests, and helped US LE freeze/seize over $125 million in 2022 and $160 million in 2023 to date.”
Related: CFTC calls ETH a commodity in Binance suit, highlighting complexity of classification
CZ also pointed out that Binance.com has 16 licenses to offer digital asset trading services, the most among cryptocurrency trading platforms.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.