The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, a.k.a., CZ, once again responded to CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer for his remarks that the trading platform was “too sketchy.”
The top executive eloquently reacted with an emoji of folded hands. He also used the opportunity to cite data showing that BinanceUS’ weekly trading volume last week outpaced Coinbase’s [global] trading volume by 41%.
For context, Cramer made his remarks in response to an interview in which Timothy Massad, a former chairman of the CFTC, called the regulator’s legal action against Binance “a big deal” a few days prior.
“If you read the complaint, there is so much detail to it. It suggests that [CFTC] did have some information from people inside,” said Massad, now a research fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also called the level of detail “really quite striking.”
Meanwhile, Cramer who is known for his anti-crypto stance has frequently found himself at odds with the CEO of Binance.
Post FTX, the CNBC host warned that the largest crypto exchange, lacked legitimacy, a charge denied by Zhao, stating that the exchange is safe.
The feud resurfaced when the outspoken critic urged his supporters to give up crypto assets on January 9 when bitcoin was languishing between $16 and 17k.
Binance CEO- “Ignore FUD”
Later when BTC surpassed $21k for the first time since Nov 2022, the Binance CEO tweeted that one of his New Year’s resolutions was to ignore FUD in an indirect reference.
After the CFTC lawsuit, Cramer continued to throw barbs at the trading platform calling it an example of “a company went rogue.” in a tweet on March 29.
Binance and its CEO, hogged the limelight after it was accused of regulatory violations filed by the CFTC in a federal court in Chicago.
According to the CFTC, Zhao, and Binance violated trading and derivatives regulations by soliciting and accepting orders from US clients for spot and derivative transactions since July 2019 while not being CFTC-registered.
In a blog post response, Zhao said the complaint “appears to contain an incomplete recitation of fact,” adding that the exchange does not concur ”with the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the complaint.”
The lawsuit has raised more concerns about the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges, notably in the US, where rules have been getting stricter.