Binance founder Changpeng Zhao will reportedly step down as the crypto exchange’s CEO and admit to violating US anti-money laundering laws. Zhao will plead guilty to criminal charges while Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, will agree to pay $4.3 billion in fines to US regulators, the Wall Street Journal reports. Citing people […]
The post Changpeng Zhao Will Step Down As Binance CEO, Admit to Violating Anti-Money Laundering Laws: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
The SEC derided Binance’s request to have the regulator’s suit thrown out, claiming the crypto exchange hasn’t correctly applied the law.
Binance’s arguments used in its motion to dismiss a lawsuit from the United States securities regulator relies on an incorrect legal analysis and have no basis in law, the regulator has argued.
In a Nov. 7 court filing the SEC rebuffed Binance’s earlier bid to toss the regulator’s suit saying no court has adopted Binance’s “tortured interpretation of the law.”
The SEC sued Binance in June alleging it, Binance.US and its founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao sold unregistered securities and failed to register as an exchange in the United States.
Binance argued the SEC failed to introduce crypto guidelines, misinterpreted securities laws and applied them to crypto and called the suit an overstep of its authority.
In its latest rebuttal, the SEC claimed Binance “never complied” with federal securities laws which was “a deliberate choice.”
“Binance’s Chief Compliance Officer crudely but succinctly summed up this case when he admitted that Binance was ‘operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.’ He was right.”
It added Binance’s arguments that compared crypto to “supermarket items like oranges [...] are absurd” and claimed the crypto exchange’s crypto sales are investment contracts under the Howey test.
Related: SEC Inspector General says prohibition on crypto ownership hinders agency hiring
The regulator reiterated its claims the BNB (BNB) initial coin offering violated securities laws and Binance USD (BUSD) along with the yield-bearing staking, Vault and Earn programs are investment contracts.
It also rebuffed Binance’s argument that the suit violated the major questions doctrine — a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling saying Congress doesn’t delegate authority to agencies, which other crypto firms have cited in their aim to push back on the SEC’s claimed authority.
The SEC claimed granting Binance’s dismissal request would “dismantle decades of foundational precedent upon which the nation’s securities laws operate” and in its place would be a “rigid framework” that upends the “broad, flexible regime” of the current laws.
Magazine: The truth behind Cuba’s Bitcoin revolution — An on-the-ground report
LINK price pulled off a shocking double-digit rally over the past week, but exactly what is behind the move?
The Chainlink’s (LINK) token surged by a substantial 61.3% from Oct. 20 to Oct. 25, reaching a peak of $11.78 and marking its highest point since May 2022. LINK price then stabilized around $10.50, prompting investors to question the sustainability of this new price level.
It's worth noting that this surge coincided with Bitcoin's (BTC) 23% gain during the same period. However, LINK's performance stands out in comparison to Ether's (ETH) 14% increase and Solana's (SOL) 28% rally, suggesting increased bullish sentiment toward Chainlink's leading oracle and decentralized computing solutions.
Several recent developments have contributed to LINK's outperformance of its peers. Notably, the announcement of Chainlink's upcoming native staking upgrade set for release in the next couple of months garnered significant attention. The initial staking pool was a resounding success, filling up in less than three hours, and the planned expansion promises greater flexibility through staking withdrawals, improved security guarantees, and dynamic rewards.
Additionally, Chainlink's integration into various blockchain networks has fueled optimism among LINK investors. For instance, on Oct. 15, Chainlink revealed its provision of services to Advanced Crypto Strategies DAO, a multi-chain yield optimizer and automated liquidity manager, and Equilibria, a yield booster for Pendle Finance.
By Oct. 22, Chainlink services had been integrated into Cobo Global, an institutional-grade digital custody solution, StaFi Protocol's liquid staking solution for Proof-of-Stake chains, Ethereum's on-chain derivatives platform Thales Market, and Xena Finance, which offers 50x perpetual futures on Coinbase's Base chain.
On Oct. 24, telecom giant Vodafone made a significant announcement, revealing its digital asset arm's involvement in the Chainlink network as a node operator. This came after completing a proof-of-concept with the Japanese trading and investment company Sumitomo for the exchange of trade documents across platforms.
The price of LINK came under pressure following the Delaware Bankruptcy Court's approval of the sale of FTX and Alameda Research cryptocurrencies on September 13. Initially, there were concerns about the potential liquidation of $3.4 billion worth of digital assets, including LINK, which raised fears of a market crash. However, recent transfers from wallets associated with the bankruptcy estate have been gradual and had little impact on prices.
As the concerns related to the FTX and Alameda Research bankruptcy subsided and renewed interest in mid-capitalization altcoins emerged with Bitcoin's rise above $32,000 on Oct. 23, investor interest in LINK grew. Consequently, the demand for leveraged long positions in LINK reached a three-month high, as indicated by the funding rate.
A positive funding rate indicates that longs (buyers) are seeking increased leverage, while the opposite scenario arises when shorts (sellers) require additional leverage, leading to a negative funding rate.
It's worth noting that the current 0.014% 8-hour rate translates to a 0.3% cost over a seven-day period, which is not significant for traders building futures positions. Typically, when there is an imbalance driven by excessive optimism, the rate can easily exceed 1.0% per week.
Related: Sam Bankman-Fried denies defrauding FTX users at trial
In addition, the number of active addresses in the Chainlink network has reached an 11-month high, as reported by Messari and Coinmetrics data.
Interestingly, the previous peak occurred on Nov. 7, 2022, when FTX exchange issues led to a six-month high in LINK's price at $38.32. This coincides with concerns surrounding FTX exchange's withdrawals and apprehensions about the impact of its native token FTT following Changpeng "CZ" Zhao's decision to liquidate Binance's holdings of FTT the previous day.
The subsequent 30 days proved to be extremely negative for LINK's price, with the token plummeting by 51.7% to $18.50. Nevertheless, LINK enthusiasts need not be concerned this time, given the substantial developments in its ecosystem and the promising advancements in Chainlink's native staking solution.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s crypto empire has fallen over 80% from its January 2022 peak of almost $97 billion.
Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has seen his net worth slashed by $11.9 billion amid falling trading volumes at his exchange.
On Oct. 26, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index cut Binance’s revenue estimates by 38% amid a slump in exchange volumes which knocked Zhao down to 95th place on the rich list.
Zhao’s net worth is now a paltry $17.3 billion, registering an 82% drop from its $96.9 billion peak in January 2022, where he was ranked 11th among the world's richest people.
Bloomberg’s index calculated Binance’s revenues from spot and derivatives trading data from crypto data aggregators CoinGecko and Coinpaprika.
As of September, the exchange’s spot trading market share had fallen for seven consecutive months to 34.3%. In January, Binance’s spot market share was over 55%.
Binance.US, its United States-based arm, also saw volumes touch new lows last month.
Zhao’s plummeting net worth and Binance’s fading trading volumes follow twin suits from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The SEC sued Zhao, Binance and Binance.US in June claiming the exchanges operated illegally, sold unregistered securities and mishandled customer assets with Zhao named as their “controlling person.”
The CFTC’s suit months earlier in March claimed Binance did not properly register with the regulator. Zhao and Binance reject both regulators’ allegations and seek to dismiss both lawsuits.
Related: Cynthia Lummis leads the charge calling for DOJ action against Binance and Tether
The recent fall pales compared to CZ’s once-crypto-rival Sam Bankman-Fried, who saw his $16 billion fortune effectively wiped out in November 2022 after FTX disclosed its liquidity crisis just days before it filed for bankruptcy.
Some believe the crisis was kicked off by a tweet from CZ when he announced that Binance was selling its FTX Token (FTT) holdings, triggering a mass of withdrawals from FTX. Zhao initially moved to buy the embattled exchange but pulled out less than 48 hours later.
Bankman-Fried took to the witness stand in his own criminal trial on Oct. 26, where he has previously pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
Magazine: Deposit risk: What do crypto exchanges really do with your money?
Bitcoin options and futures data suggests the current BTC price movement could have longevity.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price action is the talk of the town this week and based on the current sentiment expressed by market participants on social media, one could almost assume that the long-awaited bull market has started.
As Bitcoin's price rallied by 16.1% between Oct. 22 and Oct. 24, bearish traders using futures contracts found themselves liquidated to the tune of $230 million. One data point that stands out is the change in Bitcoin's open interest, a metric reflecting the total number of futures contracts in play.
The evidence suggests that Bitcoin shorts were taken by surprise on Oct. 22 but they were not employing excessive leverage.
During the rally, BTC futures open interest increased from $13.1 billion to $14 billion. This differs from August 17, when Bitcoin's price dropped by 9.2% in just 36 hours. That sudden movement caused $416 million in long liquidations, despite the lower percentage-size price move. At the time, Bitcoin's futures open interest decreased from $12 billion to $11.3 billion.
Data seems to corroborate the gamma squeeze theory that is circulating, which implies that market makers had their stop losses "chased."
The $BTC "god candle" lines up with where dealers got blown out of short positioning ($32k-$33k).
— Not Tiger Global (@NotChaseColeman) October 24, 2023
This was a gamma squeeze, not organic. pic.twitter.com/NXM8z8mNDa
Bitcoin personality NotChaseColeman explained on X social network (formerly Twitter), that arbitrage desks were likely forced to hedge short positions after Bitcoin broke above $32,000, triggering the rally to $35,195.
The most significant issue with the short squeeze theory is the increase in BTC futures open interest. This indicates that even if there were relevant liquidations, the demand for new leveraged positions outpaced the forced closures.
Another interesting theory from user M4573RCH on X social network claims that Changpeng "CZ" Zhao used BNB as collateral for margin on Venus Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) application after being forced to sell Bitcoin to "shore up" the price of BNB token.
maybe im nuts but what we just saw is
— ⚡️ (@M4573RCH) October 25, 2023
cz has BNB collateral on Venus
bnb dumping
cz sells btc to shore up bnb
cz unwinds loans and pays back debt on Venus
bnb on venus no longet vulnerable to liquidation
cz buys back btc with bnb to rebalance his btc position@cz_binance… pic.twitter.com/NHulDnacB3
According to M4573RCH's theory, after a successful intervention, CZ would have paid back the interest on Venus Protocol and bought back Bitcoin using BNB to "rebalance" the position.
Notably, the BNB supply on the platform exceeds 1.2 million tokens, worth $278 million. Thus, assuming that 50% of the position is controlled by a single entity, that's enough to create a $695 million long position using 5x leverage on Bitcoin futures.
Of course, one will never be able to confirm or dismiss speculations such as the Venus-BNB manipulation or the "gamma squeeze" in Bitcoin derivatives. Both theories make sense, but it is impossible to assert the entities involved or the rationale behind the timing.
The increase in BTC futures open interest indicates that new leveraged positions have entered the space. The movement could have been driven by news that BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF request was listed on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), even though this event does not increase the odds of approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
To understand how professional traders are positioned after the surprise rally, one should analyze the BTC derivatives metrics. Normally, Bitcoin monthly futures trade at a 5% to 10% annualized premium compared to spot markets, indicating that sellers demand additional money to postpone settlement.
The Bitcoin futures premium reached 9.5% on Oct. 24, marking the highest level in over a year. More notably, it broke above the 5% neutral threshold on Oct. 23, putting an end to a 9-week period dominated by bearish sentiment and low demand for leveraged long positions.
Related: Matrixport doubles down on $45K Bitcoin year-end prediction
To assess whether the break above $34,000 has led to excessive optimism, traders should examine the Bitcoin options markets. When traders anticipate a drop in Bitcoin's price, the delta 25% skew tends to rise above 7%, while periods of excitement typically see it dip below negative 7%.
The Bitcoin options' 25% delta skew shifted from neutral to bullish on Oct. 19 and continued in this direction until it reached -18% on Oct. 22. This signaled extreme optimism, with put (sell) options trading at a discount. The current -7% level suggests a somewhat balanced demand between call (buy) and put options.
Whatever triggered the surprise price rally prompted professional traders to move away from a period characterized by pessimism. However, it wasn't enough to justify excessive pricing for call options, which is a positive sign. Furthermore, there is no indication of excessive leverage from buyers, as the futures premium remains at a modest 8%.
Despite the ongoing speculation regarding the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, there is enough evidence to support a healthy influx of funds, justifying a rally beyond the $35,000 mark.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Bitcoin price gave up its recent gains as concerning signals from the US economy continue to weigh on investor sentiment.
Bitcoin (BTC) price gained 6% from Oct. 1 to Oct. 2 but after failing to break the $28,500 resistance, the price dropped by 4.5% on the same day. This decline happened because of the disappointing performance of Ether (ETH) futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that were launched on Oct. 2 and concerns about an upcoming economic downturn.
This correction in Bitcoin's price on Oct. 3 marks 47 days since Bitcoin last closed above $28,000 and has led to the liquidation of $22 million worth of long leverage futures contracts. But before discussing the events affecting Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, let's attempt to understand how the traditional finance industry has affected investor confidence.
Investors have heightened their expectations of further contractionary measures by the U.S. Federal Reserve following the release of the latest U.S. labor market data on Oct. 3, revealing that there were 9.6 million job openings at the end of August, up from 8.9 million in July.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell had indicated during a speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in August that "evidence suggesting that tightness in the labor market is no longer easing could necessitate a monetary policy response."
Consequently, traders are now pricing in a 30% chance that the Fed will raise rates at their November meeting, compared to 16% in the previous week, according to the CME's FedWatch tool.
On Oct. 2, the market welcomed nine new ETF products expressly designed to mirror the performance of futures contracts linked to Ether. However, these products saw trading volumes of under $2 million during the first trading day, as of midday Eastern Time. Senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, Eric Balchunas, noted that the trading volumes fell short of expectations.
On the debut day, the trading volume for Ether ETFs significantly lagged behind the remarkable $1 billion launch of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. It's worth noting that the Bitcoin futures-linked ETF was introduced in October 2021 during a flourishing cryptocurrency market.
This occurrence may have dampened investors' outlook on the potential inflow after an eventual Bitcoin spot ETF. Still, there remains uncertainty surrounding the probability and timing of these approvals by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On Oct. 2, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Binance.US and its CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao in the District Court of Northern California. The lawsuit alleges unfair competition aimed at monopolizing the cryptocurrency market by harming its competitor, the now-defunct exchange FTX.
The plaintiffs claim that CZ's statements on social media were false and misleading, particularly since Binance had previously sold its FTT token holdings before the announcement on Nov. 6, 2022. The lawsuit asserts that CZ's intention was to drive down the price of the FTT token.
The criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried will begin on Oct. 4 in New York. Despite CZ's denial of unfair competition allegations, speculation within the crypto community continues to circulate regarding this matter.
Bitcoin's price decline on Oct. 3 appears to reflect concerns about an impending economic downturn and the potential Federal Reserve's monetary policy response. Furthermore, it demonstrated how closely cryptocurrency markets are tied to macroeconomic factors.
Exaggerated expectations for the cryptocurrency ETFs also signal that the $28,000 level might not be the consensus for investors given the regulatory pressures and legal challenges, such as the class-action lawsuit against Binance, which underscore the ongoing risks in the space.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Discover how margin and option metrics hint at Bitcoin's path to $28,000 amid the Binance legal battle.
The ongoing legal battle between the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took a surprising turn on Sep. 18.
Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui rejected the SEC's request for access to Binance.US's systems. Instead, the Federal Magistrate suggested that the SEC should formulate specific discovery requests.
While this decision only temporarily postponed the need for Binance to demonstrate the separation between Binance.US's custody solution and Binance International, the market responded positively.
Bitcoin (BTC) surged to its highest level in three weeks, breaking above the $27,000 resistance. Traders are now wondering whether the rally has been supported by leverage or genuine spot buying demand.
This is where metrics related to Bitcoin derivatives could potentially provide the solution.
Judge Faruqui scheduled a follow-up hearing for Oct. 12 and called upon the involved parties to submit a status report before the event, as reported by Yahoo Finance. What might have seemed like a setback for the SEC, at least for the time being, could potentially increase the risks for Binance.
Binance's founder and CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, remains steadfast in asserting that Binance.US has never utilized Binance International's custody solutions, despite a document from Binance.US on Sep. 15 suggesting otherwise. Nevertheless, the SEC has yet to produce clear evidence of Binance attempting to mislead the court.
Regardless of the current evidence, or more accurately, the absence of reliable information provided by Binance, the outlook for Bitcoin bulls has significantly improved for the next three weeks, with no anticipated changes until the upcoming court hearing.
To gauge the increasing optimism among professional traders, let's examine Bitcoin's margin and derivatives metrics.
Margin markets offer valuable insights into the positioning of professional traders as they enable investors to increase their exposure through stablecoin borrowing.
Conversely, Bitcoin borrowers can speculate on a cryptocurrency's price decline. A declining indicator suggests that traders are becoming less bullish, while a ratio exceeding 30 typically indicates excessive confidence.
Recent data reveals that the margin-lending ratio for OKX traders has dropped to its lowest point in three months, standing at 19x, down from 27x just a week ago. These findings suggest that the overwhelming dominance of leverage long positions has diminished, although the current ratio still favors the bulls.
Market sentiment can also be assessed by analyzing whether more activity is occurring through call (buy) options or put (sell) options.
A put-to-call ratio of 0.70 indicates that put option open interest lags behind the more bullish calls, implying a bullish momentum. Conversely, a 1.40 indicator favors put options, signifying bearish sentiment.
The put-to-call ratio for Bitcoin options volume has recently shifted from favoring put options at 1.50 to a balanced 1.04 level on Sep. 20, indicating a reduced interest in protective puts.
Notably, since Sep. 18, BTC options volume has either been neutral or slightly favored put options, suggesting that professional traders were caught off-guard by the price rally above $27,000.
Related: Binance CEO refutes report on $250M loan to BAM Management
Both Bitcoin margin and options markets indicate a balanced demand between long and short positions. From a bullish perspective, this suggests that excessive leverage hasn't been utilized as Bitcoin's price climbed from $26,500 to $27,500 on Sep. 19.
However, bears may find solace in the fact that even as Bitcoin's price reached its highest level in three weeks, there was limited enthusiasm from buyers in the margin and options markets.
Nonetheless, the data does hint at buying support from spot orders, possibly indicating that big entities, or so-called whales, are accumulating regardless of price.
Now, BTC and other crypto bulls have a window of three more weeks, until Oct. 12, when the Federal Judge will convene another hearing and potentially issue orders that could pose challenges for Binance.US. In the meantime, a Bitcoin price rally above $28,000 is certainly on the table.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao declares that the cryptocurrency industry will only become better as it becomes more decentralized.
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao predicts that decentralized finance (DeFi) has the potential to surpass centralized finance (CeFi) in the next bull run.
During a Sept. 1 live X Spaces (formerly Twitter Spaces), titled CZ AMA, CZ stated his predictions for the future of DeFi. “I think the more decentralized the industry becomes, the better,” he declares, adding that it might not be long before it takes the top spot:
“Defi is the future, the volume is somewhere between 5% to 10% of CeFi volumes, which is not small right [...] the next bull run may very well make DeFi bigger than CeFi.”
Live now.https://t.co/e4bVfhKwRB
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 1, 2023
On June 9, Cointelegraph reported that following the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) legal action against centralized exchanges Coinbase and Binance, the median trading volume on the top three decentralized exchanges (DEX) surged by 444% within a 48-hour span. At the time of publication, the 24-hour trading volume on DEX's is $722,776,226.
CZ also shared his perspective on the recent dismissal of the lawsuit against the decentralized protocol Uniswap. “I agree with the uniswap thing was extremely positive, extremely reasonable and logical and clear. That is very good," he declared.
On Aug. 30, a US federal court dismissed a class action lawsuit against Uniswap, and its CEO, foundation and venture capital backers, brought by plaintiffs who claimed they lost money due to scam tokens on the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.
Related: Balancer protocol exploited for $900K as DeFi hacks mount: Finance Redefined
The judge rejected the case because neither side could identify the scammers. Instead of suing the scammers for illegal solicitation, the plaintiffs were suing the defendants for what they said on social media.
During the Spaces, someone recalled the judge's decision that developers cannot be liable for misuse of their platform which the user believes is positive news for DeFi builders in the industry. CZ agreed and was quick again to praise the ruling.
“Developers writing code, that code is free speech. So the development is really good," CZ stated.
He also talked about how cryptocurrency should be used by every country, with some needing it more urgently than others.
“Every country needs crypto, some countries need it more urgently than others. Developed countries there may be less of a need, but ten they are letting the other guys catch up. So if they want to maintain the lead in terms of financial innovation, then they’ll need to adopt it.”
Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market: Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in
Crypto exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao are planning to submit legal motions requesting the dismissal of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) lawsuit against the company. According to a new court filing, several Binance business entities, Zhao and Binance’s former chief compliance officer Samuel Lim intend to file two separate motions by July […]
The post Binance and Changpeng Zhao Look To File Motions Compelling the CFTC To Dismiss Lawsuit Against Crypto Exchange appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Lawyers for the basketball star claim he did not mention any alleged securities but instead warned of celebrities promoting crypto investments.
Professional basketball player Jimmy Butler has asked to be dismissed from a class-action lawsuit targeting celebrities involved in the alleged promotion of unregistered securities by Binance, saying tweets he appeared in did not promote the named securities.
In a July 24 filing, Butler’s lawyers argued three tweets he appeared in promoting Binance between Feb. 2 and Feb. 13 of 2022 did not mention allegedl unregistered securities and thus could not have helped to promote them.
They asserted Butler’s tweets did not recommend any investment and instead warned of celebrity crypto endorsements, urging potential Binance customers to do their own research on crypto investments.
Butler was named in the March class-action lawsuit alongside Binance, its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and YouTubers Graham Stephan and Ben Armstrong, who is known as BitBoy Crypto.
Binance engaged Butler — an All-Star player for the National Basketball Assocation's Miami Heat — in 2022 to promote the exchange in the lead-up to that year’s Super Bowl.
He first appeared in a video promoting a free nonfungible token (NFT) collection from Binance on Feb. 2, 2022. Butler subsequently tweeted another two videos that month, on Feb. 7 and Feb. 13.
Trust yourself.
— Binance (@binance) February 2, 2022
02.13.22
Here's a message from all-star basketball forward @JimmyButler ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/WS9XCQrlhO
In the video posted by Binance, Butler says “you’re going to hear some of the biggest names telling you to get into crypto but they don’t know you or your finances.”
“Binance and I are here to tell you, trust yourself and, of course, do your own research,” he added.
Related: Binance cuts back on employee benefits, citing ‘decline in profit’: Report
In Butler’s first tweet for the exchange, he said those who used the hashtag “#CryptoCelebAlert” during the Super Bowl could win one of 2,222 NFTs. In another of Butler’s videos, he urged followers to trust themselves and do their own research into crypto.
Is crypto for you? DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH, trust yourself. ⁰⁰I’m giving away 2222 NFTs of me during the game today with @Binance. When a big name tries to sell you crypto, sound the #CyptoCelebAlert buzzer. #ad
— Jimmy Butler (@JimmyButler) February 13, 2022
⁰Learn more➡️https://t.co/zh3cpqeYF7 pic.twitter.com/fzBdSUGCfW
A June 27 amended complaint said Butler’s statements were deceptive as they appeared alongside the promotion of the free Binance NFTs and its exchange platform.
Zhao, Binance and Armstrong have similarly filed motions to dismiss the suit. On June 15, the class action dismissed finance YouTuber Stephan from the suit.
Hall of Flame: Wolf Of All Streets worries about a world where Bitcoin hits $1M
