Over the course of this month, a lot of stuff went down in the crypto-verse. The crypto exchanges under the spotlight for steering into the bad side of the regulators were BitMEX and OKEx. Although some proposed that the arrest of BitMEX ‘s founders was a crypto-verse lesson, a few others thought otherwise. Several crypto personalities have commented on the spiraling of BitMEX, and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao is the latest to join the list. CZ also addressed the development of CBDCs in a recent interview.
A Wake-Up Call For The Crypto-Verse
BitMEX fell under the purview of the United States’ regulators as it failed to put into place the required user verification procedures. While the negligence of the exchange has caused it a hefty price to pay, CZ revealed that the regulatory climate across the globe has become increasingly severe since 2018. He added,
“[BitMEX’s indictment] is a wake-up call for the rest of the players to be more cautious, to be fully compliant. Back in the summer of ’15, you could probably do anything because there was no regulatory [guidance]. But I think by 2018 and in the last couple of years, there has been a lot of regulatory guidelines.”
Elaborating on how his Malta-based crypto exchange has always been compliant with the decrees put forth by the regulators across the globe, CZ mentioned the launch of Binance’s United States exclusive platform, Binance US. He further added that the exchange was striving to keep the residents of the US away from the other platforms of Binance. He suggested that the exchange was not intending on stepping on anybody’s toes.
Furthermore, the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC] has been on the mind of every nation. While several propose that these assets could pose as a threat to Bitcoin, CZ suggested otherwise. He pointed out how certain CBDCs could be deprived of the freedom that Bitcoin entails. However he added,
“If there is a government pushing another cryptocurrency that’s even more open, more free, has less restrictions than Bitcoin, and is faster and cheaper to use, then that would threaten Bitcoin. But that is good for the industry, it’s just something better than Bitcoin, and would replace it.”
With China at the forefront of developing CBDC, CZ revealed that Binance has no immediate plans of rolling out a yuan-based stablecoin following the several stipulations in China.