Binance CEO Resigns in $4.3B Deal

4️⃣ CZ Steps Down Amid Legal Woes

Guilty Plea and Resignation: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to U.S. anti-money laundering laws violations, stepping down as part of a $4.3 billion settlement. This is one of the largest U.S. corporate penalties​​.

Severe Legal Violations: Binance failed to report over 100,000 suspicious transactions, including those linked to terrorist groups and illegal activities. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland criticized Binance for facilitating criminal financial movements.

Settlement Terms and Responsibility: Binance will pay $1.81 billion within 15 months, plus a $2.51 billion forfeiture. Zhao acknowledged his mistakes and the need to take responsibility, emphasizing the decision's benefit for the community and Binance. Read More.

📰 Crypto News

• ⭐️ CZ & Binance plead guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Richard Teng will succeed CZ as Binance CEO. Binance will pay a $4.3B fine and CZ a $50M fine. CZ has since paid a $175M bond and must appear in court on Feb 23rd for sentence hearings.

• JPMorgan believes Binance settlement is positive as it eliminates potential systemic risk from hypothetical collapse.

• Research reveals Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool has become the first to filter transactions based on US OFAC sanctions.

• ⭐️ SEC charges Kraken for alleged securities laws violations. Kraken disagrees with the SEC and intends to defend itself in court.

• ⭐️ Mt. Gox trustee announces the redemption of $47M in trust assets with plans to repay creditors in 2023 and 2024.

• Celsius recovery plan stalls as SEC requests more information.

• Bittrex Global winding down operations, effective December 4th.

• Genesis files lawsuit against Gemini for allegedly making preferential transfers worth ~$689M, claiming an unfair advantage over other creditors.

• Optimism Foundation proposes ApeCoin DAO build ApeChain on the Optimism Superchain.

• CoinGecko acquires Zash, an NFT data infrastructure & intelligence company.

⚡ Alpha

• Andrew Huang, founder of Conduit; reveals anyone can now run a node on Zora network and releases a celebratory Conduit Zorb NFT.

• Dan Romero, founder of Farcaster, releases Base x Mint .fun NFT on Warpcast.

• Starknet Quest launches new Starknet Pro Score Campaign by Braavos. Complete the quest to earn a commemorative NFT.

• Redstone launches new RedStone Expedition quest on Galxe.

🪂 Airdrops

• Olimpio posts X thread featuring Blast, a new Ethereum L2 backed by Paradigm.

• ICYMI: Pyth Network airdrop is live and claimable.

• Blur Season 2 airdrop is live and claimable, launches Season 3.

• CC2 posts X thread featuring a zkSync airdrop strategy.

• Mingo Airdrop posts X thread featuring Mode, a new Ethereum L2 built on the OP Stack.

📰 Finance News

• ⭐️ OpenAI reaches agreement with Sam Altman for him to return to the company.

• Automotive tech company Valeo Schalter und Sensoren sues Nvidia $NVDA for allegedly stealing trade secrets.

• Sony faces $7.9B lawsuit over allegations of abusing its dominant position leading to unfair prices on the PlayStation Store.

• Toyota to pay $60M to settle US regulator's charges for lending abuses and tarnishing credit reports.

• Shares of US retailers drop as economic demand in the US slows.

🛡 Security and Exploits

• ⭐️ HTX and Heco bridge hacked for ~$97M. Justin Sun has stated HTX will fully compensate losses and an investigation is ongoing.

• Fantom Foundation pays $1.7M bounty to a security researcher who disclosed a potential $170M vulnerability.

Token Unlocks

• Euler / 135.32K $EUL / ~$380K / 22 NOV
• Avalanche / 9.54M $AVAX / ~$193M / 23 NOV
• Acala / 4.66M $ACA / ~$276K / 24 NOV
• LooksRare / 37.5M $LOOKS / ~$2.7M / 26 NOV
• Yield Guild Games / 16.69M $YGG / $5.8M / 27 NOV

💰 Funding

• Privy, an onboarding platform; raises $18M in Series A funding led by Paradigm.

• Saga, a game-focused Layer-1 protocol and developer ecosystem; raises $5M in Seed extension funding led by Placeholder.

• IntentX, an OTC perpetuals DEX; raises $2.5M in Seed funding led by Magnus Capital.

• Zeal, a cryptocurrency wallet; raises an undisclosed amount in funding.

• Poglin, a studio creating an IP spanning video games, anime, comics; raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Animoca Brands.

🌾 The Degen Farmer