Topic: Who's next in line? (Read 235 times)

Although you can be a fan of those men, you are free to be a fan of any person, when it is related to your money, you have to secure your money by yourself.

Being a fan of those exchange founders is not bad thing but if you turn it too storing your money on their exchange, it turns to be something bad or even terrible.
It's terrible when you store all your cryptocurrency, money on an exchange, in your exchange account, because you are a fan of either Sam Bankman-Fried, Changpeng Zao or Justin Sun.

Lesson learned by many people with FTX crash within a week. So far they have yet relaimed part of their fund stored on FTX before that exchange crash.

In a young history of cryptocurrency market, many exchanges are dead.

Exchange graveyard

The largest crypto exchange by volume's got to be Binance but which's the biggest exchange offering deposits & withdrawals to fiat bank accounts? They should be worried because there's a chance it's them.

I wouldn't see it as surprising news when the next exchange's going to get investigated by American SEC. I've got to agree it's only a matter of time.

As we don't know what will happen next, that is true, it is us, the users who should be very careful in using third party services.
Always secure your funds in your own wallet. Right after you finished trading, better transfer it to your own wallet.
We can't trust any of them even the top exchanges as they can hold your funds and let you wait before they will release your very own funds.
As regulation is getting tighter these days, the authorities will come after these online trading platforms. Only a matter of time.

I think it's not about who is the next owner to fall or what service is going to screw us (fk), it's about being careful which services to use, and even if we use them, be careful to know where the "exits" are, in these cases (OP) some can be compensated but it is not like that all the time. Then I would change your idea to don't be next.

Not really that totally shocking at all on which we do know that  government does really like on involving on things and trying out to control everything according into their liking. If those CEO are the heads of those
known platforms which is that handling out crypto transactions and trading or whatever business that they are dealing then it would really be that just a common approach that they would really be that targeting those heads and making out issues even if it wasnt really that something justifiable but since they are really good on making those issues which turns or do really looks legit then those CEO's wont really be having no choice
but to face up on whatever things that they had been accused to.

SBF and CZ situation? They are different and it is really that something that also different when it comes to market movement. Everything didnt dump much and it turns out that its a little
obvious that they do really make out some shakening of weak hands to buy cheap. Government doesnt really like on getting behind and as much as possible
whenever those things that they couldnt really be able to control would really be someone that would really be next in line.
We dont know on whose next, but it would really be always better that we should expect the unexpected as always.

CZ accepted Binance laundered money so he's accepted guilt. It's difficult to answer who's next.

American regulators have taken the biggest crypto exchanges to court if they don't want them trading in ways they're unhappy with so they'll make you face American courtrooms. It's possible all of the rest could be next so it isn't a good moment to be CEO of exchanges.

I think Binance is safe because CZ reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice, he agreed to resign, accepted to pay the fine and was willing to accept the punishment if they forced him to go to jail. He sacrificed to keep binance and BNB alive.

What I see, the US government not only wants to assert power and control over the cryptocurrency market in their country. They want to control this entire market worldwide.

I do not consider this as negative as what SBF caused, I think it is normal that the market is not affected too much. So far, binance is still doing its job well without causing any impact like FTX did. So we cannot say that bitcoin or the market is becoming immune to big news.

It is quite unfortunate to see the biggest exchange facing this level of attack from the government. Binance is the most popular exchange in my location but I am glad that it didn't affect its operations. I listened to the live conference by the US Department of Justice where Attorney General Merrick B. Garland outlined the various crimes of Binance. His comments made it look like CZ International violated US laws because of profit. The comments from the representatives of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) during the conference show that the US government wants to fully regulate the crypto ecosystem within its territory.

The message is clear, if you don't want us to see and control everything you are doing, leave the US crypto market. The next exchange that will go under the hammer of the government are those that fail to comply with the draconian laws the government has put in place. My only fear is that the actions of the US regulators might have a ripple effect on other nations. Since many countries look to copy policies from the US, we might begin to see the same moves from other nations.

But I am glad that Bitcoin is gradually becoming independent of the effects of the attacks on crypto-related businesses. Everyone expected that the price of Bitcoin would fall further than what it is now, but the coin is resilient.

It's so unfortunate with what is happening in the crypto industry lately where exchanges are taking advantage of the relevance and the newness of the industry to be perpetrating their evil deeds. Like I always say, more regulation is the best and inevitable, it's just the way to help society to be cleaner and avoid excesses of companies and individuals. Imagine the case of CZ, who knows the total amount he would have laundered before he could settle for as much as $4.3B? This has further exposed the corruption in the crypto industry, and with the recent developments, I do not believe that there is any exchange out there that is innocent. I hope the perpetrators could actually be jailed for their crimes to be a deterrent to those who believe that they can do such things and go scot-free with it.

This should have informed people who didn't believe when I said sometimes that market manipulation by exchanges is possible, this also goes to artificially creating arbitrages to profit from it. But it seems that people are naive about the real thing that goes on in this life and are too trusting. Business owners are desperate for the big money and would continue to find any unsuspecting means to get it.

Lastly, I don't know the next one to be caught, it's those who have their presence in the US that are mostly being caught. I wish the global branches of exchanges could be thoroughly invested as well, it is at this time you would be surprised by the level of evil these people have already perpetrated.

I think the SEC is being too tough on crypto exchanges. They are trying to control this industry, but they are doing it in an ineffective way. The lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase is a typical example. The SEC accuses these exchanges of selling securities but I disagree with this allegation. Cryptocurrencies are not securities. They are digital assets. The SEC is trying to impose stock market regulations on a completely different market. This is not reasonable and it could harm the cryptocurrency industry.

Poloniex? Kraken? Kucoin? Or that new emerging exchange that's been advertised by many crypto influencers on Youtube called "Bitget".

We can't predict the future like what others are saying here, but I guess it's pretty obvious that the SEC is targeting these Centralized Exchanges one by one. Who is the current chairman of the SEC? Gary Gensler, and just for the sake of everyone, he's involved with the FTX fiasco. I guess he has a huge hate towards these CEX'es thus, doing everything to stop them.

I guess this serves as a lesson to us that we shouldn't store our assets in our exchanges. I still remember when there were some investors who put even their life savings in the FTX exchange hoping that they could get more money as they stored it there. Well, nobody, or only a few people knew that what happened with FTX would happen. Go buy a hardware wallet if possible, and don't store it on exchanges. I know that there are some who couldn't afford to buy one, so I guess non-custodial wallets might work. As for which CEO or exchange will go down next, I can't answer it precisely, but I believe that SEC will continue to target them like what they did with Binance.

No one knows who will be the next to experience problems like CZ. The SEC seems to be looking for the next victim and will put pressure on them as they already do. Certainly, the more famous a person, exchanger, or business is, the more the wind will blow against it.

It just remains the readiness of the person concerned to be able to prove that he is innocent and be able to fight it. But it is not easy to prove that they are innocent and can fight because they have to deal with regulations. Meanwhile, the regulations made can change at any time and this can clearly ensnare them.

So we should focus on accumulating more Bitcoins. This negative news could cause the Bitcoin price to experience a correction that might become deeper. And if that happens, we will have more opportunities to buy more Bitcoin.

What he said means he had problems managing seed phrase, so what is the difference between using Electrum and a hardware wallet? Both wallets require him to manage his seed phrase and password himself. First of all, what he needs to do is to be confident in himself and be responsible with his assets rather than seek help from third parties such as centralized exchanges.

I agree that air-gapped devices are indeed a secure solution but is it correct to say that hardware wallets are more risky? I won't talk about the Ledger wallet because it's not reliable anymore, but the Trezor or Passport wallets are trustworthy wallets. I am using trezor for many years and I am still safe with it.

The SEC's recent victories are not just punishments; they are a clear call for more care in cryptocurrency. There is a lot of uncertainty about who will be next, which means that groups that dont follow the rules will eventually be punished. At this point, its either time to adapt to strict regulatory frameworks or face the results. The next target? Most likely, an exchange or CEO that doesnt think the SEC will be able to stop them.

These high-profile cases and fines show a bigger story: people are becoming more interested in how to regulate cryptocurrencies. Every fine and arrest shows how important the business is becoming. interest leads to concern, and controversy leads to interest. This pattern of legal action isnt just a punishment; its also an unintended promotion that brings cryptocurrency to the public's attention, ignites discussion, and engages more people. The more controversial a problem is, the more people and government officials are interested in it, which will change the future of crypto in ways that all OG investors have predicted.

OP, you are asking questions, which cannot be answered by anyone, who doesn't work in the Security and Exchange Commission(or any European regulatory agency). We don't have crystal balls and we cannot the predict the future of all crypto exchanges and their CEOs.
Maybe some crypto bookmaker could possibly start accepting bets about who is doing to be the next crypto whale in prison or which ones of the CEOs are going to be having problems with the judicial system. Perhaps you could place your bet on Justin Sun. I would place my bet on small shitcoin/NFT scammers like Logan Paul. He's not the CEO of any big crypto company, but he's definitely a scammer.

So you mean it's not safe to use a hardware wallet in this day and age? Then you shouldn't trust every exchange either? Can you clarify this here in this section? Because if we shouldn't trust an exchange, how do you think we can convert Bitcoin to our fiat currency?

Then, like the first mentioned, apart from the electrum wallet, isn't there any other non-custodial wallet that is also safe apart from the electrum apps? How about the trezor and ledger? Are they safe too?

I think CZ should regret taking the risk of building Binance US, if he hadn't originally built the exchange there it probably wouldn't have been as complex as this. However CZ collapse was not as bad as some other CEOs. He stepped down in the right way and gave his position of power to someone he trusted. Bitcoin still does not respond to this news, instead the price of Bitcoin rises. I currently have no trouble withdrawing Bitcoin from Binance but high gas fees my wife still hasn't withdrawn it from the exchange.

If I'm not mistaken, $4.3 billion dollars is the largest amount in history, exceeding cases that have already occurred. The SEC will not remain silent they will continue to target other Crypto exchange CEOs. There is no doubt that Justin Sun has to start preparing himself because it is possible that his name is already on the list.

Whoever committed a violation can end their career/company but I won't consider this as a win for the government over cryptocurrency in any way because if one exchange goes down then another will replace the void if there is any so all they can do is bring down the companies which apparently violated the laws but I feel from this no exchanges wants to operate in the US which may be a victory for them.

To the extent that I'm now beginning to be suspicious on the harsher crypto stance of the government right now. BlackRock, for example, has been meeting exclusively with the SEC people and probably others as well. I think we're at the beginning of a bigger shift in the playing field.

Traditional giants in finance which became bullishly interested in spot Bitcoin ETFs are probably in the early process of snatching up the crypto market from young and new crypto players like Binance and Kraken and others.

I don't know what others are thinking, but I'm seeing the old system, those fiat investment firms and wealth managers, slowly but surely and in a cunning way take over the crypto market.

Thinking or talking about any exchange or CEO that he can be the next number I think is not right, because no one wants his exchange or such a big post to be criticized easily. No one thought that CZ could be involved in such activity, but we all thought that the SEC would somehow try to take down Binance exchange. The dispute between CZ and SEC was going on for a long time and we did not think SEC could win this case. A fine of $4.3 billion is certainly a huge amount, but Binance Exchange will have no trouble paying the fine.  It is difficult to say which CEO or exchange is next, but action must be taken against any CEO or exchange involved in wrongdoing.

All the exchanges have people's capital, and people hold capital by trusting the exchange.So there is a need to keep a close watch on any illegal activity of the exchanges and SEC is doing exactly right in this regard. However, one of the reasons for this may be that the USA government never wants crypto exchanges to become strong, and in this way, crypto-currency will maintain its monopoly on the world. So, to end this monopoly, USA is trying to control it in a different way, because if Bitcoin keeps growing like this, the US government will never want it.Then US government wants to see the world ruled by the dollar.

Do not trust any mate, if you’re in need of which exchange to purchase bitcoin from then I will recommend a decentralized exchange which you can easily get from list here on https://kycnot.me/, once you purchase your bitcoin you move them to your personal wallet. You don’t need to be scared of managing your own wallet all you need to do is to understand how it works, security comes at a price and this price is acquiring the knowledge. As for the choice of an hardware wallet it is a good choice but I will advise against Ledger wallets due to policy issues rather go for wallets like passports or Trezor self. But before going in full make sure you have experiment it with a little amount.


I am also more of a fan of airgapped wallet than regular hardware wallets but I wouldn’t recommend it to a total newbie like him, because the set up and other process can easily have mistakes which would just compromise the wallet. But rather he should go for an open source hardware wallet at least should there be any changes to that wallet policy the tech savvy guys could spot it out easily


I also feel like the attack on this individuals or exchanges is like a direct attack to the cryptocurrency community except if it is case like SBF’s, although they themselves are cony with their centralized protocols but I will rather pitch a tent with them than the government. One thing is once you don’t meet their regulation requirements then the SEC (government per se) will come fully for you.

I'm not a fan of SBF, CZ, Sun, and the rest of them and all their centralized platforms, but I kind of don't like that they're defeated by government agencies that are apparently more corrupt than them. Somehow, I desire for the failure or collapse of all these centralized platforms, but not through repression by the government but by the free choice of their users completely abandoning them. DoJ winning over Binance isn't much of a victory really. 

Centralized exchanges are targets of governmental authorities because they can easily knock doors of those centralized exchanges and request them to meet governmental regulatory request, charge expensive legal fees and more.

Governmental authorities can easily find CEOs of centralized exchanges at their nations or apply extradition do summon those CEOs and bring them to courts.

I don't mind too much about CEOs of centralized exchanges because it is not my interest. If I use their centralized exchanges, honestly I hope they will be good.

Story about Binance and Changpeng Zao reminds me about Satoshi Nakamoto. His decision to leave the forum and Bitcoin developer and communities years ago are very excellent. It is Satoshi Nakamoto's big gift for all of us.

as long as they don't break the rules and follow what the SEC wants, they will be safe. Until today, I really don't care about what happens on another centralization exchange, because I don't save my crypto there, and I rarely don't use exchange for trading. I am still happy because I can change my crypto on my local exchange without a problem. But, still when we talk about CEO, until today, I don't know what the CEO thinks before creating a project in a country where very tight on rules. If they are serious, they must think it how to save the customer money, not think about mere profits.

I think The CEO of Poloniex is sweating bullets right now. Maybe he does not actually have the funds to pay anyone back. As far as I know, withdrawals are still frozen and despite promises of a coming solution, if he has no money then he is just biding for time. He believes he can get the money back with profits that will not exist anymore because nobody is going to use Poloniex after this.

OP missed Arthur Hayes, CEO of Bitmex 
What happened to CZ (CEO of Binance) is almost the same as what happened with Arthur Hayes (CEO of Bitmex) before.
Just incase Justin Sun is the next, then Huobi will be also included as Justin Sun is recently involved with Huobi exchange.

As you can see your off topic reply as derailed the discussion, please I beg you not to derail it any further.

While the image says Sun is next, you forgot to include him to the bullet of highlights summary list.

There's a flash crash but it's not the crash that we're expected to come. More of a quick correction but then the market recovered so quick. I think that we're entering to the bull run already and with news like this, it won't affect it much anymore. It's likely that we're going to see more of this scaring from them. But there's the basis of what they're reasoning out for CZ's chase. Anyway, they are just there monitoring and if there's a little hole that they can and peek in. They're going to dig and make it a bigger one just as what's with the case of CZ.

I have a 70k savings account and 20k available if I sell the car (and get a new one on credit).
I intended to invest 20k in BTC shortly after the FTX collapse. However my deposit on binance (5k euros, and I intended to make 3 deposits) was stopped by the bank and the momentum was gone.

That same 15k investment now only allows me to buy half a BTC or even less.
This also means that if 1 BTC ever skyrockets to the moon, I will only make half of the money that I could have made.

I want to get in now. Hopefully I can do this on Binance, from Belgium. I was advised to go for small deposits first but the price is already rising.
I estimate the odds quite high of my bank stopping a 5k deposit to Binance. I don't know how to proceed if that happens.

He is using already a hardware which is the very best thing a holder can make, electrum's security and safety still matter on the users device unlike using HW.
Also, having electrum is not like managing your "own software", well, maybe because its open source but i wont call it like that.

whos next: barry silbert (DCG)

Does any body else feel they are quickly increasing efforts of making examples out of people like CZ to scare every body else and warn them of what is to come?

I am surprised the Market did not react as much to the news.  I thought Bitcoin would enter yet another temporary crash.  Love him or hate him, CZ has always done things to lower the level of heat.  This still sounds like a 'start telling us you are doing wrong before we make you say it out loud' kind of threat to every body else who is doing similar to what CZ has done.

What just happened to Binance CEO, any exchange can be next. Why do you have to trust any exchange? You should be the one controlling your money yourself. If you allow a third party to control your money, then you are wrong. All I do on exchange is just buy bitcoin, and after buying it, I do send it to my personal wallet instantly, which I know am the one in  control of it. If you are not confident about your skills, all I will recommend you do is go for more research and learn. If you will be making investments, you shouldn’t be tired of reading because we know money is involved. Any slight mistake can lead to you losing your entire investment.

In the grand scheme of things, 5% rise is nothing. Do you really thinnk that once BTC goes above 100k it will matter to you whether you bought it at 35k or 37k? Don't let this feeling linger on you and instead just start investing, preferably as soon as possible. Another thing, instead trying to time the market (as you will fail at it anyway), you might wanna consider DCA investment method.


Managing HW ain't that hard at all. Just get one (preferably open source), send smaller amount of bitcoin first to figure things out and once you feel more comfortable, send the rest. 

Because of all this turmoil, I expected BTC to drop in value today.
But I woke up and after CZ's resignation, it is up 5%. Bad news for me and it feels like the ship has sailed.

On one hand I want to get in asap. On the other hand I am worried that I should invest more time into managing a wallet (avoid losing everything), and the halving is nearing while the price is already rising.

Any exchange that is operating within the US.

And with that, the first exchange that comes to my mind is Coinbase, and since this is US based, they have been fighting against SEC for the longest time now.


https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/23/coinbase-poised-to-make-final-pitch-in-bid-to-kill-sec-accusations-quickly/

So we will see how this things settle down between SEC and Coinbase. Or if SEC will also used their hammer against a US based crypto exchange, or if they want to show force that anyone can be under their microscope and could suffer the same fate as Binance or CZ.

They will target any exchange that wants to lead the crypto industry. It's the US, and it's not very easy to convince them. The SEC is playing a major role in controlling the crypto market. CZ was one of the top crypto leaders, and the US forced him to leave his company. How funny a thing! Anyway, day by day, centralised exchanges are becoming more risky to use. Because Binance was the most trusted and the US succeeded in forcing the CEO to pay a penalty and leave. I don't know what will be in the future.

Don't trust any exchange bro because they can do whatever with your money they want and trusting them with you money isn't a good choice. I recommend you to learn about personal Bitcoin wallets and especially software wallets like Electrum and then try to create your own personal wallet and deposit your Bitcoin into that.

I won't recommend you to go with Hardware wallets as they can't be trusted because sometimes they may contain malware which could be very risky. Go with a software wallet like Electrum and save your private keys and seed phrases on secure locations and then disconnect the pc that you used to create your wallet because air-gapped system is the most secure way to keep your Bitcoin safe.

None. With Bitcoin you do not trust, you verify.
You do things yourself without having to rely on the legitimacy of a third party like banks.

Will you be more confident managing your own software wallet like electrum for a start? It is just a basic app and does not have any complex controls, the only difference between it and an exchange wallet is you actually own the wallet and have the seedphrase which you have to back up.

- Jay -

I had issues depositing on Binance (I am located in Belgium) 5 months ago. My deposit arrived but was immediately taken back by some banking group.
3 days ago I asked in a crypto group if these issues are resolved now. They said that Binance can operate in Europe based on a Polish license. It was also suggested that I used Kraken to get my hands on BTC.

One day later I heard that CZ gets a multi billion dollar fine, and that Kraken is also in a legal battle.
I literally don't know which exchange to trust for my first investment. And I'm not very confident in my skills to manage my own wallet (Ledger nano x) as a beginner.

The recent years have not been easy with crypto exchanges as SEC has been breathing down their necks and constantly taking legal actions against them, and many heavyweights have not been spared as they've either tested the blade or feeling the heat.

Below are the highlights of SEC's latest victory in the fight against crimes and fraudulent practices in the space.

• FTX boss, SBF's trial finally came to an end few weeks ago and the crypto community are anxiously waiting to hear the final verdict come 28 March 2024.
• Bittrex's winding down and $24 million dollars penalty settlement.
• Binance fined of a whooping $4.3 billion dollars, the highest ever paid by an exchange and CZ pleading guilty to money laundering.

Which exchange or CEO do you think is going down next?