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When cryptocurrencies collapsed and a number of companies failed last year, Congress considered multiple approaches for how to regulate the industry in the future. Ironically, the failure of Bankman-Fried's FTX and his subsequent arrest late last year may have contributed to the momentum for regulation stalling out. Before FTX imploded, Bankman-Fried spent millions of dollars — illegally taken from his customers it turns out — to influence the discussion around cryptocurrency regulation in Washington and push for action. “Moreover, almost everything the crypto industry does is clearly covered by existing securities and commodities laws that every other law-abiding financial firm in the country follow," he said. Bartlett Collins Naylor, a financial policy advocate for Public Citizen's Congress Watch said “laws on fraud and securities are currently sound.”__Hussein reported from Lewiston, Maine

Persons: Sam Bankman, cryptocurrencies, FTX, Fried, “, Sens, Debbie Stabenow, John Boozman, Sen, Sherrod Brown, Brown, He’s, ” Brown, can’t, Joe Biden, Dennis Kelleher, Bartlett Collins Naylor, __ Hussein Organizations: Securities and Exchange Commission, Coinbase, PayPal, SEC, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Agriculture Committee, U.S ., Financial Services, White, Federal Reserve, Consumer, Better, Public Citizen's, Watch Locations: PALM SPRINGS, Calif, Washington, Ohio, stablecoins, Lewiston , Maine

☆ Over half a million silver coins just vanished – now the metals dealer behind the 'fraudulent' scheme must pay $146 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Joseph Wilkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A precious metals dealer has been asked to pay up $146 million in damages after over half a million silver coins went missing. Robert Higgins ran a "fraudulent and deceptive scheme" linked to the purchase and sale of precious metals, the CFTC said. From 2014 to 2022, Higgins led a 'fraudulent silver leasing program' that took deposits from almost 200 customers. Higgins ran a "fraudulent and deceptive scheme", and was ordered to pay $113 million to clients and $33 million in penalties, according to the CFTC. The precious metals industry has seen a series of scams in recent times.

Persons: Robert Higgins, Higgins, —, Prateek Gupta Organizations: Service, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Asset, Depository Company, US Treasury, London Metal Exchange Locations: Delaware, Rotterdam, Singapore

☆ Here's what the SEC's 'all-out assault' on crypto means for the market's 2 biggest players
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Max Adams | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"If this goes poorly, it could be an existential issue for Coinbase," Jeff Blockinger, chief counsel at decentralized finance platform Vertex Protocol, told Insider. Sources told Insider they expect Coinbase to fight extremely hard against the suit, which essentially says its whole US operation is illegal. "This is an all-out assault, particularly in regards to Binance, but it is a broader assault on the industry. A deal just means 'the casino can stay open'From Smith's point of view, the real existential matter isn't the SEC's lawsuit but rather the nature of the market itself. "If the SEC and Coinbase cut some sort of deal, that just means the casino can stay open."

Persons: —, Changpeng Zhao, Zhao —, Binance, Zhao, Jeff Blockinger, it's, Brian Armstrong, he's, Coinbase, Gensler, Sam Bankman, Richard Smith, Ron Geffner, Goldberg, Geffner, There's, Smith Organizations: Coinbase, Service, Securities, Exchange Commission, Binance, SEC, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Bloomberg, The Foundation Locations: Cayman Islands, Alameda, SEC's

☆ Binance charges are a last gasp for crypto
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Binance founder Changpeng Zhao doesn’t have much to look forward to. The SEC alleges that Binance knowingly helped U.S. customers trade illegally on its exchange. Binance, in a blog post, trotted out a familiar crypto defense: The SEC, which has been vague on how cryptocurrency should be regulated, is beyond its reach. In March, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed similar charges against the company. Follow @AnitaRamaswamy on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume.

Persons: Changpeng Zhao doesn’t, Zhao, –, Sam Bankman, Fried, Binance, Gary Gensler, FTX, Changpeng Zhao, Richard Teng, Coindesk, Teng, Zhao “, Lauren Silva Laughlin, Sharon Lam Organizations: YORK, Reuters, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, U.S . Commodity Futures Trading Commission, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, U.S . Commodities Futures, Commission, Thomson Locations: United States, U.S

☆ The SEC is suing Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao for violating securities regulation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Max Adams | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The SEC is suing Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao. The SEC alleged that Binance diverted customers' funds to a trading firm called Sigma Chain that was under Zhao's control. The regulator also said Sigma Chain conducted fraudulent trades to artificially inflate Binance's volume. In February, the Journal reported the SEC was looking into the relationship between the US arm of Binance and two trading firms with ties to Zhao. One area of the investigation's focus was how Binance.US disclosed to customers its links to the trading firms, the report said.

Persons: Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Zhao, —, Binance's Zhao Organizations: SEC, WSJ, Service, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Monday, Street Journal, Sigma, Sigma Chain, District of Columbia, Commodities Futures, Trading Commission, Palestinian, Justice Department, Washington Post, Western, of, Reuters Locations: District, Binance.US, Russian, of Washington, Seattle

☆ A Veteran Business Journalist (and Wine Lover) Learns an Age-Old Lesson
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( James Barron | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As he acknowledged, the story was unusual because it had started with his own experience with Sherry-Lehmann, a New York store that had long been venerated. Many New Yorkers who don’t know wine know about Sherry-Lehmann. “The customer base on the Upper East Side left town,” debilitating the company’s bottom line, Stewart told me. For people who know their wine, Sherry-Lehmann was something more than a retail store with Park Avenue respectability. Just as there are corn futures and soybean futures, there are wine futures, which struck me as a concept a business reporter would love.

☆ Bank of England deepens supervisory cooperation with US CFTC
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Friday that it was deepening its cooperation with the United States' Commodities Futures Trading Commission regarding the supervision of cross-border central counterparties (CCPs), a key part of financial infrastructure. "The CFTC and the Bank reaffirm the primacy of the UK and US home authorities in their respective jurisdictions," the BoE said in a statement. The BoE said that it would recognise CFTC assessments of U.S.-based CCPs which operate in Britain. "This assessment enables the Bank to place reliance on the CFTC's supervision and oversight of incoming CCPs based in the US," it said. Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy BruceOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ASIC on Thursday cancelled the Australian financial services licence of Oztures Trading Pty Ltd, trading as Binance Australia Derivatives (Binance), in response to a request from the company. “Our targeted review of these matters is ongoing, including focus on the extent of consumer harms.”The financial services licence authorised Binance to issue derivatives and foreign exchange contracts. Noting many cryptocurrency products and services are not regulated by ASIC, Longo said the regulator supported a "regulatory framework" for the asset class. Binance said in a statement it had decided to pursue a "more focused approach" in Australia after "recent engagement with ASIC". The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange is battling regulatory suits and probes around the world.

☆ Prosecutors say Binance execs cracked jokes when warned terrorists could be moving money on their platform: 'Can barely buy an AK-47 with 600 bucks'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

"Can barely buy an AK-47 with 600 bucks," the Binance employee wrote to their boss, per the CFTC. The complaint said Lim described a Binance compliance audit as a "half assed individual sub audit on geo(fencing)" to "buy us more time." "Yea its fine I can get mgmt to sign," Lim responded, per the CFTC's complaint. "Lim's internal discussions with compliance colleagues illustrate that Binance has tolerated Binance customers' use of the platform to facilitate 'illicit activity,'" said the CFTC's complaint. In a Tuesday statement, Zhao said the CFTC's complaint "appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts," and disputed "the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the complaint."

☆ Here's why recent moves by the SEC and CFTC may be just the start of crypto's regulatory troubles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Both the SEC and the CFTC have taken action against the crypto industry in the last few weeks. He added: "At the end of the day industry participants are searching for regulatory clarity, which has not yet been achieved." "Compliance and regulatory efforts are expensive, but necessary, the personnel will be almost as important as tech people," Yang told Insider. Markets could face more volatility following a crackdown because crypto prices are often sensitive to regulatory news. This, however, would require a widespread effort and coordination between financial regulators, industry participants, and legislators.

☆ Binance boss CZ shows what he thinks of the trading violations lawsuit with an enigmatic tweet: '4'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Binance boss Changpeng Zhao "CZ" Photo by Pedro Fiúza/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesBinance boss CZ showed what he thinks of trading violations lawsuit with an enigmatic tweet: "4"He was referring to one of his four principles: "Ignore FUD, fake news, attacks, etc." CZ said he eats his company's "dog food" by storing his personal crypto on his exchange. Binance boss Changpeng Zhao showed what he thinks of the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) lawsuit against him and the exchange with a cryptic, enigmatic tweet of the number "4." I eat our own dog food and store my crypto on Binance.com," he said. In other words, if a company's dog food is as high quality as advertised, it should be good enough for its employees to eat.

☆ Bitcoin and Ether are down 3% after CFTC sued Binance and its CEO over US regulatory violations
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Cryptocurrencies are trading lower after CFTC sued major exchange Binance for regulatory violations. Bitcoin and Ether are trading around $27,000 and $1,700 respectively, about 3% lower over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin and Ether prices are around $27,000 and $1,700 per token respectively, per CoinMarketCap data. The US regulator said in a complaint filed in a Chicago federal court Monday that Binance breached eight provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act. The CFTC said Binance "lucrative and commercially important 'VIP'" customers, including institutional customers in the US while disregarding registration and regulatory requirements under the US law.

☆ The CFTC's suit against Binance marks a deepening crackdown on the crypto industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

All this comes just days after the SEC charged a spate of high-profile individuals for fraud and crypto market manipulation. That comes months after the total crypto market value saw about $2 trillion erased in a brutal plunge in token prices. The SEC also warned that the platforms investors use to get involved in crypto aren't quite airtight, in the regulator's view. In other news:FILE PHOTO: A participant stands near a logo of World Bank at the International Monetary Fund - World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua Reuters2. The World Bank just warned that this could be the start of a "lost decade" for global economic growth.

☆ Binance 'could be in big trouble' as the CFTC lawsuit alleges the crypto behemoth dodged regulators and breached laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Binance is being blow-torched from all angles as US regulators close in on the world's largest crypto exchange. The CFTC sued the exchange this week for violating US financial laws, whilst some reports suggest Binance has engaged in secret fund transfers. On Monday, the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance and Zhao himself, for allegedly breaching US financial laws. Following the shocking implosion of Sam-Bankman Fried's FTX exchange late last year, concerns have risen whether Binance faces similar risks. If US authorities decide the links meant the crypto exchange had control over the US platform, it could expose the company to enforcement action.

☆ Swiss franc grapples with safe-haven identity crisis after Credit Suisse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Samuel Indyk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Money managers ditched the Swiss franc at the fastest rate in two years last week in the run-up to the dramatic takeover of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) by UBS (UBSG.S). "You still have some of the safe-haven hedging properties in the Swiss franc but it can only take so much when the risk ends up being so concentrated in the Swiss economy and the Swiss financial sector," Kundby-Nielsen added. "If it hadn't been Credit Suisse, but any other European bank getting into trouble, you would have seen the Swiss franc rising sharply because it would have been the safe haven for European risk," said Francesco Pesole, FX strategist at ING. "The franc is not an 'all-weather' safe haven and so far we've not had the type of market pressures that would typically lead to franc appreciation," he said. SWISSIt's one thing for the franc to have lost some favour among investors during a Swiss-centric crisis, but quite another to suggest its days as a safe haven are numbered.

The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission has estimated missing customer funds at more than $8 billion. The affiliates -- LedgerX, Embed, FTX Japan and FTX Europe -- are relatively independent from the broader FTX group, and each has its own segregated customer accounts and separate management teams, according to FTX court filings. In part to preserve the value of its businesses, FTX also sought Dorsey's approval to keep secret 9 million FTX customer names. Dorsey allowed the names to remain under wraps for only three months, not six months as FTX wanted. In addition to customer funds lost, the collapse of the company has also likely wiped out equity investors.

The collapse of crypto exchange FTX is becoming clearer. Complaints from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission released Wednesday night provide the most comprehensive look yet at how Sam Bankman-Fried’s operation came crashing down. The new documents, totalling 81 pages, allege how FTX sent customer funds to Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, directed high-level executives to create special software code to make such transfers easier, hid losses, and even continued to secretly siphon funds to Alameda as the company was headed toward insolvency. Two top business associates of Bankman-Fried, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, are defendants in the civil cases brought by the SEC and CFTC and have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges, a federal prosecutor in New York said Wednesday. Here are the 14 most notable passages in the complaints, with the full documents embedded below:

The co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the former CEO of Sam Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research, have pleaded guilty to fraud, a federal prosecutor in New York said Wednesday. The SEC complaint alleges that Wang "created FTX’s software code that allowed Alameda to divert FTX customer funds," and that Ellison used those funds for Alameda's trading. The SEC complaint alleges a complex scheme to trick both investors and customers into believing that FTX had strict and advance risk mitigation. "From the inception of FTX, Defendants and Bankman-Fried diverted FTX customer funds to Alameda, and continued to do so until FTX’s collapse in November 2022," the SEC complaint reads. “If you participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to get ahead of it,” he said.

John Ray, chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, arrives at bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. It could be one way for the DOJ to gather evidence of alleged fraud. In a filing in Delaware federal bankruptcy court, Andrew Vara, a U.S. bankruptcy trustee, told the court that the allegations of corporate misconduct and complete failure merited an immediate and speedy examination of the events leading up to FTX's stunning collapse three weeks ago. It's not unusual to appoint a bankruptcy examiner. There was one to oversee the crypto bankruptcy process of Celsius Network, for example.

☆ 'You're an absolute fraud': CME Group CEO says he called out Sam Bankman-Fried the first time he met him, months before FTX's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

CME Group CEO Terry Duffy said he called Sam Bankman-Fried a "absolute fraud" in March. "Right away my suspicions were up," Duffy told CNBC on Tuesday. "Right away my suspicions were up," Duffy told CNBC on Tuesday, after he initially recounted his meeting with Bankman-Fried last week on the "On the Tape" podcast. "And then when I met with [Bankman-Fried], I knew right away this a joke, this is absolutely going nowhere." "You're a fraud, you're an absolute fraud," Duffy said he told Bankman-Fried at the meeting in March earlier this year.

☆ CME Group CEO calls Bankman-Fried 'an absolute fraud,' says he saw trouble months before FTX collapse
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Stephanie Landsman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A major exchange executive says he detected red flags months before the historic FTX collapse. CME Group chairman and CEO Terry Duffy said he suspected corruption at the cryptocurrency exchange the day of his first one-on-one meeting with founder Sam Bankman-Fried. "I told my team this had nothing to do with crypto," Duffy told CNBC's "Fast Money" on Tuesday. You're an absolute fraud," Duffy said he told Bankman-Fried. Duffy wanted to know whey the Commodities Futures Trading Commission was looking at Bankman-Fried's request to ease regulatory rules to push his trading model.

☆ FTX crash shares eerie similarities with Bernie Madoff, ex-regulator Sheila Bair says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Sheila Bair, a top regulator during the 2008 financial crisis, told CNN there are eerie similarities between the dramatic rise and fall of Bankman-Fried and FTX and that of infamous Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff. Bair notes that 30-year-old Bankman-Fried, like Madoff, proved adept at using his pedigree and connections to seduce sophisticated investors and regulators into missing “red flags” hiding in plain sight. Up until the bankruptcy filing, FTX even had an application pending with federal regulators to clear derivatives, The Wall Street Journal reported. FTX’s bankruptcy filing indicates it had liabilities of $10 billion to $50 billion at the time of the filing. — If you are an FTX customer and want to discuss how you have been impacted by the bankruptcy, please reach out to Matt.Egan@CNN.com

☆ Explainer: Crypto industry spends millions on U.S. midterm elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Crypto companies are eager to back industry-friendly political candidates. The election comes at a time of turmoil for the crypto industry. FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has far outspent all others in the crypto industry. WHAT IS THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY LOOKING TO GET IN RETURN? Crypto companies such as Circle want lawmakers to create a framework for stablecoins to help mature the industry and codify consumer protections.

loading"A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors," FTX's Bankman-Fried said in a series of tweets on Monday. According to CoinDesk's report, much of Alameda's $14.6 billion in assets are held in FTX's token, which is called FTT. Reuters was unable to independently verify the accuracy of the report or the origin of the leaked balance sheet. Since the CoinDesk report on Nov. 2, FTX's token has shed around $400 million from its market cap as traders sold the token. With a market cap of around $3 billion, FTX's token ranks as the 28th largest cryptocurrency, according to CoinGecko.

The annual U.S. inflation rate was little changed in September, hitting 8.2% year-over-year compared with August's 8.3% reading as the pace of price increases remains at multidecade highs, causing pain for many U.S. households. Inflation remains at the top of Americans' minds going into the last quarter of a year that has seen across-the-board volatility in food, gasoline and energy prices. So the burden of bridling a stubborn inflation rate sits on the doorstep of the Federal Reserve. "There's definitely still a Russia-Ukraine effect keeping food prices elevated," he said. "Food price inflation is going to stay a problem in US for next couple of months," Adams said.

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