Changepeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, declared that it had filed a cease and desist order to “Binance Nigeria Limited” and referred to it as a “scammer entity.”
This comes after the alleged fraudulent local unit was ordered by Nigeria’s market authority to halt operations accusing it of wooing investors through an unauthorized and illegal website.
Later this month, the US financial watchdog SEC filed lawsuits against Binance and Zhao on 13 counts. Some of these accusations were that the firm did not register as a broker-dealer or an exchange, its funds were unlawfully mixed, and that it lacked essential internal controls over its operations.
Since then, the trading firm has kind of turned into a FUD magnet. The most recent of these was apparently French officials looking into the firm for potential money laundering, according to the regional newspaper Le Monde.
CZ promptly put a stop to the rumors and suggested that a few weeks ago unforeseen onsite visits might have fanned the rumors.
In the days that followed, the crypto exchange reaffirmed that all French financial institutions are subject to regulatory requirements that include on-site inspections by regulators and inspectors. Binance stressed that during the latest review, it fully cooperated.
Again when the native token BNB was trapped in regulatory headwinds with a price risking $220 liquidation, CZ also had to reassure investors.
Speculators were rife that CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and his trading firm were dumping Bitcoin [BTC] to artificially stabilize BNB.
Binance Reach An Agreement On US Customer’s Assets
CZ tweeted in response that Binance had not sold either BTC or BNB and that the crypto exchange still owned “a bag” of FTX Token FTT, the native token of the collapsed trading firm FTX, urging users not to fall for the FUD.
In a huge relief for Binance’s users, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached an agreement over the weekend to not freeze the exchange’s funds.
Citing an order from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the SEC emphasized that Binance.US users are permitted to withdraw their assets from the trading platform.
The assets will also be safeguarded and continue to be in the United States, the Commission assured in a press release.