Binance’s lawyers submitted documents suggesting Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was interested in serving as an advisor to the crypto exchange, according to a CNBC report.
This was discussed over a series of meetings with Zhao and executives from Binance in March 2019, which culminated in a face-to-face lunch meeting between Gensler and CZ in Japan, lawyers from Gibson Dunn and Latham & Watkins law firms, claimed.
During that time, Gensler was a faculty member at the MIT Sloan School of Management and assumed the role of Chairman at SEC in 2021.
The CEO was also invited to attend an interview with Gensler as part of a cryptocurrency course he was teaching at MIT, according to Zhao’s attorneys, who deduce that the SEC chair was the one cozying up to the firm.
But for reasons unknown, things turned awry as evidenced by the latest filing where the SEC referred to Zhao, as a “foreign national” with a tendency for “geographic elusiveness.”
Since taking the role, he has adopted a tough stance on the digital asset industry, slapping lawsuits against top crypto players for allegedly selling unregistered securities.
Binance and CEO Zhao, which so far able to withstand regulatory maelstrom got hit by 13 charges by the SEC earlier this week, sending shockwaves across the space.
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.
Zhao’s lawyers now say the CEO was aware that Gensler was “comfortable serving as an informal advisor.
Binance Saw a Net Outflow of Roughly $280 Million – Glassnode
Following the Securities and Exchange Commission filing of a lawsuit against the biggest crypto exchange, considerable fluctuations in its Bitcoin [BTC] holdings were observed.
Glassnode reported a net outflow of 10.5K BTC, or around $280 million, making it the 12th largest net outflow day for Binance in terms of BTC.
It however remains substantially lower than the peak net outflow of 40.3K BTC or about $1.04 billion in USD.
The total amount of Bitcoin stored across Binance’s exchange addresses is still sizable despite the large outflows that were seen throughout this time. Currently, Binance has a solid 694K BTC, which is only 10.5K BTC short of its all-time high [ATH], which is 704.5K BTC.
