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Binance Joins Hands With Kazakhstan to Develop a Crypto Framework

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Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and blockchain infrastructure provider, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry.

The parties stated a shared interest in the country’s virtual asset market development in the agreement.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed during CZ’s official visit to Kazakhstan. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao visited Kazakhstan on May 25, 2022, and met with President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, Timur Suleimenov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of Kazakhstan, and Bagdat Musin, Minister of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

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Binance Joins Hands With Kazakhstan to Develop a Crypto Framework 2

Kazakhstan will develop a regulatory crypto framework with Binance

Binance will assist in the development of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s legislative framework and regulatory policy for crypto-assets.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Republic of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry and Binance will look for ways to integrate banking infrastructure into the cryptocurrency market, as well as facilitate the development and implementation of distributed ledger technology.

The Ministry of Finance and the exchange will work together to promote Astana Hub among local and international talent, allowing for the establishment of a regional blockchain hub.

“As a global leader among crypto exchanges, Binance takes responsibility for the whole ecosystem. Together with CZ, we considered the Binance roadmap in Kazakhstan. We also discussed the potential of creating a blockchain-oriented VC-fund and academy to help local talents from Astana Hub to go global. We really believe Kazakhstan can become a regional hub for international players in the crypto world.”

Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bagdat Musin

In addition, the Ministry is involved in the formulation and implementation of state policy in the areas of innovation, communications, public services, and electronic industry in the context of the country’s digital development.

WSJ Claims Crypto Has An Insider Trading Problem; Binance & FTX Denies It

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A Wall Street Journal article on insider trading in crypto platforms has caused quite a stir. Citing publicly available data, the article claimed that several anonymous crypto investors profited from inside knowledge of when tokens would be listed on exchanges.

It then takes back to August 2021 when one unknown crypto wallet had acquired a stake worth $360,000 of Gnosis coins, days before Binance revealed via a blog post that it would list Gnosis, to be traded among its users.

Shortly after the announcement, the wallet took advantage of the token’s rising price and began liquidating it entirely. As per an analysis performed by Argus Inc, the anon wallet netted a profit of about $140,000 and a return of roughly 40%.

The same wallet also exhibited similar patterns with at least three other tokens.

The report further said that the wallet was among 46 that purchased a combined $17.3 million worth of tokens that were listed shortly after on Coinbase, Binance, and FTX. However, the identity of the wallet’s owners remains unknown.

Crypto Exchanges’ Reaction To The WSJ Report

Spokespersons from both Binance and FTX said they are studying the analysis before confirming the trading activity in Argus’s report didn’t violate their policies. Coinbase maintained it has compliance policies in place which prohibit employees from trading on privileged information.

A Binance representative divulged that employees have a 90-day hold on any investments they make and that leaders in the company are mandated to report any trading activity on a quarterly basis.

“There is a longstanding process in place, including internal systems, that our security team follows to investigate and hold those accountable that have engaged in this type of behavior, immediate termination being minimal repercussion,” she said.

The spokesperson also said none of the wallet addresses were linked to its employees

In an email sent to WSJ, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried a.k.a SBF wrote that the firm has a zero tolerance policy toward employees from trading on or sharing information related to upcoming token listings.

“The trading highlighted in Argus’s analysis didn’t result from any substantive violations of company policy,” SBF added.

Binance makes bold moves

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Binance US announced on Thursday that Krishna Juvvadi has joined the company as vice president and head of law. Juvvadi comes to the exchange forum from Uber, where he was the global head of operations compliance. Early in his career, he worked as a trial attorney for the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Juvvadi will oversee the legal department’s day-to-day operations at the company’s US base. Norman Reed, who joined the firm’s US base as general counsel in December and has past experience with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, crypto, and fintech, will be his boss. Brian Shroder, CEO of Binance US, said in a statement,

“We recognize the importance of remaining responsive to and complying with the evolving rules and regulations governing the crypto ecosystem, and we continue to attract and invest in top legal and compliance talent to ensure this priority remains at the forefront of our operations.”

According to local media, Juvvadi has not replaced anyone because the head of legal is a freshly created post at the company’s US headquarters.

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source: Binance US blog

The company has been active in hiring employees who have previously worked for the government. The two organizations have hired over a dozen similar recruits in recent weeks and months, including Krishna, Reed, Steven McWhirter, and Stephanie Cabossioras.

Binance delists LUNA and UST trading

Binance has removed itself from the list of cryptocurrency exchanges trading  UST and LUNA. Following the disastrous plunge of the algorithmic stablecoin, the worldwide cryptocurrency exchange has suspended trading pairs with the Terra ecosystem’s cryptocurrencies.

On May 13, Binance stated that spot trading for the LUNA/BUSD and UST/BUSD trading pairs would be suspended. It’s unclear when withdrawals will restart, as the crypto exchange only recently stated that it will wait until the Terra network issues were rectified before proceeding.

It is the latest action by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, following one of the most dramatic black swan events to influence the sector since the inception of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2009.

SBF: “The LUNA UST Mechanism Wasn’t Misrepresented—It Was Very Transparent”

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FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried a.k.a SBF stood boldly behind Terra’s co-founder Do Kwon and has shared his views on one of the worst debacles in the crypto industry. Supporting the beleaguered founder, SBF sought to give his piece of mind in one of the most talked-about issues- the LUNA/UST mechanism which has come under intense criticism.

In his Twitter thread, SBF said the LUNA/UST was very transparent and not distorted as widely viewed. “Do Kwon obviously stood by it, morally and in terms of press, long after he should have backed off,” the tweet read.

Kwon didn’t claim that UST was backed 1:1 by USD. He claimed, accurately, that it was backed by a bunch of volatile assets. It was very publicly clear that those assets might go down, and the rest followed. Again–I don’t want to condone the behavior. But it’s different.

Kwon who is currently facing mounting criticism over his stablecoin fiasco was on one occasion labeled crypto’s Elizabeth Holmes drawing similarities to her defrauding investors in the Infamous Theranos Scandal that rocked the US healthcare industry.

According to SBF, Luna was driven by mass enthusiasm, excitement, and over-the-top marketing and meme gimmicks that made people believe in something which was going to falter according to the publicly available information.

“That marketing was probably bad. But it wasn’t the *same* type of bad as Theranos,” he said.

SBF: “Most Bad Investments Aren’t Ponzi Schemes”

The FTX founder tried to dispel myths about investments that yield losses by saying “most bad investments aren’t Ponzi schemes. Some are fraud, some are bad luck, and some are somewhere in between.”

He reasoned this by citing instances of investments that have lost more than 50% of their value in 2022, including Cathie Wood’s ARKK Investment, AMC Entertainment, Netflix, and LUNA.

One can’t help but compare the stark contrast to Binance Changpeng Zhao’s reaction who slammed UST as “one over-leveraged ‘stable’ coin” and criticized the design flaw of its ecosystem. 

Following the meltdown, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange responded by halting the trading of Terraform Labs’ Terra [Luna] and TerraUSD [UST] tokens on its platform indefinitely.

Binance Delists LUNA and UST Trading Amid Issues on Terra Blockchain and High Volatility

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Binance delists LUNA and UST. The international cryptocurrency exchange following the catastrophic drop of the algorithmic stablecoin has stopped trading pairs with the Terra ecosystem’s cryptocurrencies.

Binance announced the action on May 13, suspending spot trading for the LUNA/BUSD and UST/BUSD trading pairs. It’s unclear when the withdrawals will resume, as the crypto exchange just indicated that it would wait for the Terra network difficulties to be resolved before proceeding.

Following one of the most major black swan occurrences to impact the industry since the creation of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2009, it is the latest step by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

Is it over for LUNA?

Despite promises to save the failing Terra coin and UST, Binance Futures delisted coin-margined LUNA perpetual futures on Thursday. Following the meltdown of the Terra blockchain currency, validators were compelled to take the network offline on May 12 in order to prevent any governance assaults.

On May 10, Terra’s coin and its algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD crashed dramatically as UST lost its $1 peg. The system was meant to maintain its peg to the US dollar automatically. Still, it failed, causing the UST to devalue and LUNA tokens to be created unprecedentedly.

The fall was catastrophic, with the value of LUNA plummeting by 95 percent in a matter of days. Do Kwon, the founder of Terra, has issued a short-term strategy to help the ecosystem recover. The plan called for burning $1.4 billion UST and staking 240 million LUNA tokens in order to keep the UST $1 peg from depreciating.

According to rumors, Crypto.com, a Singapore-based exchange with over 50 million users, halted the coin trade yesterday. Because of the coin’s recent significant market volatility, the decision might constitute a follow-up. The historic downturn has caused investors panic and considerable loss, as many have lost their whole life savings.

Now it seems like almost all the exchanges are letting LUNA go. Will it resurrect? Only time will tell.

Binance Freezes LUNA, UST Withdrawals Amid Market Bloodbath

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Binance has temporarily put on hold withdrawals for LUNA and UST tokens on the Terra [LUNA] network on 10 May 2022 in the early hours citing a high volume of pending withdrawal transactions.

According to the notice published on the website, this was caused by network lags and high congestion. Once it stabilizes and the volume of pending withdrawals comes down, Binance said it would resume the transaction.

“We will not notify users in a further announcement. We apologize for any inconvenience,” the blog read.

Multiple reports began to surface on Twitter that traders were unable to sell UST for anything below 70 cents.

Kraken and CoinList too joined in suspending withdrawals at the time of this post. However, FTX is still processing withdrawals of UST. Following the suspension, Terra’s official Twitter handle account requested users to not indulge in spamming during the high volume saying,

“If you are using the public infra, please do not spam it at this time as we are experiencing naturally high levels of transaction volume. Please be mindful of our public infra usage.”

LUNA foundation attempts to salvage its stablecoin UST’s de-pegging

The news comes at a time of high market turmoil, especially for Terra’s algorithmic stable coin UST which has spiraled uncontrollably, registering a sharp decline against the dollars in the past few days. 

TerraUSD [UST] has lost its dollar peg for the second time in three days, falling to $0.65 on Monday. As UST has “depegged,” the price of LUNA the Terra blockchain’s native asset has also declined from around $61 to roughly $29 in a matter of 24 hours at press time, data from Coinmarketcap showed.

Efforts were made to salvage the token to prevent it from further falling. Its creator Luna Foundation Guard [LFG] announced a plan to lend $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and UST to third-party trading firms in a bid to bolster support for UST’s peg on May 9.

The LFG even emptied its bitcoin reserves, which were liquidated to defend the peg. But the price continued to plummet against that of USDT, the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin.

Binance Turkey Alert Users Of An Ongoing Scam Attempt

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Binance’s ever-growing popularity comes with its downside. The world’s biggest crypto exchange is now facing another battle. No, it is not the regulators, but scammers and fraudsters that are giving the firm a hard time.

Taking advantage of the platform’s expanding fan base, unknown criminals attempted to exploit investors using fake Binance-branded billboards and hoardings in Turkey.

This prompted the Turkish wing of the trading platform to take to Twitter stating that it has no affiliation with the ad and issued a word of caution for users from falling for such scams.

It also added that “Necessary legal processes have been initiated against persons who are clearly involved in fraudulent activities”

The image contains a billboard purportedly sporting an advertisement titled “Binance Tourist exchange” which includes telephone numbers that, when dialed, might link potential victims to scammers.

Binance launched a 24/7 helpline service in Turkey

A few weeks ago, Binance launched its first 24/7 customer service center in Turkey with the primary goal to proactively end fraud cases before it happens. One likely reason for its selection of Turkey is the massive amount volume of traffic the exchange receives from the nation.

As per an announcement, if the pilot test in Turkey is successful, the exchange plans to expand the service globally. As for now, the trading firm will offer customer support in Turkish, only through the app.

Binance, which is regarded as one of the most dominant digital currency exchanges in terms of daily trading volume had discussions with UAE authorities on setting a base camp in the nation.

After Turkey and Lebanon, UAE is the third most rapidly emerging crypto market in the Middle East.

In late December 2021, Binance had inked a deal with the Dubai World Trade Center Authority [DWTCA] intending to carve out a global virtual resource ecosystem. The exchange is one of the first digital currency exchanges to join the DWTCA’s new crypto initiatives.

Binance said in a statement that the agreement allows it to work with DWTCA to “define the idea of hastening the establishment of another industry center point for Global Virtual Assets.”

Spanish Regulator Shuts Binance Crypto Derivatives Service

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Spanish securities regulator Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores [CNMV] has reportedly prohibited Binance to extend its derivatives services in Spain before obtaining licensing approval, the Crypto Times reported on 7th May.

Following the directive, the digital asset exchange removed its derivatives drop-down option on its Spanish website and temporarily suspended derivatives offerings to comply with regulations and eligibility criteria set by the government agency, confirmed by the local news sources.

The local report also suggested that the trading platform will restore the derivatives option only after receiving the regulatory green light in the form of a guarantee certificate from the Bank of Spain (BdE). 

At present, Binance is on a gray list of CNMV, along with other crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Bit2Me. Under the gray list, organizations are not permitted to operate as fully licensed entities.

Since January, the leading exchange has been in talks with the Bank of Spain and the securities regulator to gain licenses, but there has not been any breakthrough so far. At the time, Alberto Ortiz, country manager of Binance in Spain, declared

By joining the Bank of Spain registry we hope to encourage other firms to do the same.

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That said, Binance has been very resolute in its approach to gaining regulatory approval and operational licenses from regulators across the world. Especially to operate as a fully licensed financial institution

French Regulator says ‘Qui’

Last week, Binance was granted a digital asset service provider license from the financial markets regulator in France.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), France’s agency responsible for regulating the financial market, has issued permits to provide crypto-related services in the nation.

The registration was a step toward allowing the crypto exchange to provide crypto-related services in France, including custody assets, exchanging digital assets for other tokens or legal tender, and operating a digital asset platform.

The move into France signaled Binance’s latest expansion of its global operations, having previously obtained in-principle approval to operate in Abu Dhabi in April. Prior to that, in March, regulators in the Middle East also gave the green light for the exchange to set shop in Bahrain and Dubai.

Binance extends its expensive arm to Elon Musk

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Musk’s $44 billion Twitter acquisition was aided by a number of companies and individuals. Binance was one of the companies involved. This was revealed via a Schedule 13D form submitted by the firm with the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC].

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The takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk has been a hot issue in the previous several weeks. Musk has been generating news for a variety of reasons, including conjecture about what he would do with his own version of Twitter and the addition of prospective cryptocurrencies. While Musk has received help from the crypto sector on several occasions, the most recent one is quite costly. Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is said to be investing $500 million in Twitter.

Elon Musk went on to say that he has raised $7.14 billion in order to purchase Twitter. Apart from the bank financing, Musk needed to raise $21 billion in equity to complete the acquisition.

Apart from Binance, equity backers included Sequoia Capital, which contributed $800 million. The investment firm VyCapital, based in Dubai, is expected to contribute $700 million. Elon Musk received the largest investment from Oracle co-founder Lawrence Ellison, who put in $1 billion. The Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust was funded by him. Musk was also required to file this document with the SEC because all of the entities own more than 5% of Twitter’s stock.

The total amount of equity commitments stated in the filing is approximately $5.2 billion. According to the filing, Saudi Arabian billionaire HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud (Kingdom) has chosen to keep 34,948,975 shares, subject to certain conditions.

Binance’s small contribution to the cause

As the entire community was taken aback by this unusual collaboration, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao moved to Twitter to express his gratitude. CZ claimed that the exchange platform was contributing a tiny amount to the cause.

There were other rumours flying around. Several of them suggested that Binance Coin [BNB] and Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin [DOGE], be added to Twitter.

Binance postponed ApeCoin and Solana transactions

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Owing to excessive demand, Binance has temporarily put on hold the ApeCoin [APE] lending function. The amount left on the exchange is currently insufficient to satisfy the need for APE by its users. Additionally, withdrawals on the Solana [SOL] network have been suspended a few times since April 25.

In the notice published on its website, the leading crypto exchange cited high withdrawal volume generated with blank transaction IDs that led to the suspension of SOL. The blog read,

“We are actively working with the project team to provide a stable, long-term solution to reduce transaction failure and enhance the user experience. A further announcement will be posted if there are updates on this.”

Speaking about ApeCoin, the token is the heart of the Otherside Metaverse of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project and is hitting a wave of milestones after its launch.

Besides being labeled as the hottest cryptocurrency in 2022, the popular coin has reached a market cap of over 5 billion dollars. Since its entry into the market in early 2022, ApeCoin has risen to a whopping 1000%. and is now the third-highest liquidated coin after Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Coinglass.com.

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The 24-hour trade volume of APE shows the asset occupying the fourth position after Tether, Bitcoin, and Ethereum and could very well be on a path toward exceeding its all-time high of $39.40.

This value could be matched or eclipsed once the asset starts being utilized in the Otherside Metaverse ecosystem beginning tomorrow.

Apecoin- the rising star in the metaverse universe

ApeCoin, the default currency required in Otherside has become the biggest metaverse token by market capitalization and has managed to surpass bigger rivals like Decentraland’s MANA, The Sandbox’s SAND, and Axie Infinity’s AXS.

At the time of publication, ApeCoin is exchanging hands at $23.12 and up by almost 4% in the past 24 hours. One of the main reasons behind APE’s meteoric rise is the frenzy surrounding the sale this weekend.

Around 50,000 plots of virtual land are open for public sale on Otherside, a soon-to-be-released metaverse platform. Interested buyers will need ApeCoin to purchase a plot, which is contributing to the price surge.