Changpeng Zhao, brawling titan of Binance, meets a sudden defeat - Times of India
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Changpeng Zhao had long cultivated the image of the rugged pugilist of the cryptocurrencies world. When his rival Sam Bankman-Fried ’s crypto empire collapsed a year ago, Zhao, or “CZ” as his fans call him, was in the middle of it all, yanking his money in a very public way and helping trigger the ultimately fatal run on the firms. Years earlier he claimed the company’s headquarters was wherever he happened to be, a thinly veiled salvo against regulators trying to nail down jurisdiction.And this March, when US regulators charged Zhao and his firm, Binance Holdings, with violating US securities laws, his on-line response was “4,” which is Zhao code for dismissing something as unworthy of his attention. On Tuesday, though, Zhao cut a very different image in a Seattle courtroom. Dressed in dark suit and pale blue tie before a federal judge, he pleaded guilty to criminal charges for anti-money laundering and US sanctions violations, including allowing transactions with Hamas...