Who is suing Binance & Changpeng Zhao?

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, accusing the company and Zhao of operating an illegal cryptocurrency exchange using billions of dollars in Binance customer funds.

Who is Zhao Changpeng?

Zhao Changpeng, the founder and chief executive officer of Binance, in 2022. (Reuters: Benoit Tessier) The world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, was sued by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday for operating what the regulator alleged were an "illegal" exchange and a "sham" compliance program.

Did Zhao & Binance secretly control Binance?

“While Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that Binance.US was created as a separate, independent trading platform for U.S. investors, Zhao and Binance secretly controlled the Binance.US platform’s operations behind the scenes,” the SEC said.

Is Binance a US exchange?

Binance has long claimed that Binance.US operated separately from the main exchange. While publicly claiming that Binance itself didn’t serve people in the US, Zhao and others at Binance directed valuable investors to bypass the controls meant to keep them from using the platform, the SEC alleges.