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Zhao has been replaced by Richard Teng, a senior Binance executive who joined in 2021, the company said. "Binance has seen significant exchange outflows since the announcement, but relative to their total holdings, it's quite small," Nansen analysts said. By comparison, investors pulled around $1.43 billion from the crypto exchange and its U.S. affiliate in June after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the companies. Lawyers for Zhao, who founded Binance in 2017, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Zhao paid a $175 million bail bond, with another $15 million held in a trust account, a court filing showed.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Changpeng Zhao, Binance, Zhao, Richard Teng, Nansen, ransomware, Arthur Hayes, Hayes, Sam Bankman, Fried, Daniel Silva, Buchalter, Luc Cohen, Michelle Price, Richard Chang Organizations: REUTERS, Nansen, U.S, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, Islamic, Binance, Prosecutors, Justice, Reuters, Thomson Locations: al Qaeda, Islamic State, Iraq, Syria, Dubai, Seattle, United States

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSYDNEY, Nov 23 (Reuters) - A Brookfield-led consortium's A$16.3 billion ($10.61 billion) bid for Origin Energy (ORG.AX) is expected to fail after the largest shareholder in Australia's biggest energy retailer said it would vote against the offer at an investor meeting on Thursday. The energy company's shares closed on Wednesday at A$8.42, up 1.69%, but well below the offer price of A$9.43 per share. If everyone thought it was going ahead the share price would be higher," he told Reuters. Brookfield and Origin Energy declined to comment on Thursday's vote. Origin shares remain 2.1% lower than last week's close and have traded well below the offer price since the new bid arrived, suggesting investors were pessimistic of its success.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, EIG, Jamie Hannah, I'm, Macquarie, Ian Myles, Scott Murdoch, Lewis Jackson, Miral Organizations: Brookfield, REUTERS, Rights, Origin Energy, Newmont Corp, Newcrest Mining, Brookfield Corp, Energy, VanEck, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Brookfield, Sydney

☆ Genesis sues Gemini over $689 million in customer withdrawals
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Under the companies' operating agreements, Genesis borrowed crypto assets from Earn customers, re-invested the assets and paid interest to customers. Gemini acted as custodian, processing deposits and withdrawals and taking a cut from payments by Genesis to Earn users. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Genesis, its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Gemini in January. Genesis has also sued DCG over $600 million in unpaid loans made to the parent company. Genesis Global filed for bankruptcy in January after the collapse of key counterparties including FTX caused it to freeze customer redemptions in November 2022.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Genesis, Gemini, Letitia James, Mark Zuckerberg, DCG, Dietrich Knauth, Will Dunham Organizations: REUTERS, Gemini Trust, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, Digital Currency Group, Gemini, New York, Meta, Genesis Global, Thomson Locations: New York

☆ Binance sees $956 mln in outflows after Zhao steps down to settle U.S. probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Smartphone with displayed Binance logo and representation of cryptocurrencies are placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken, June 8, 2023. Zhao has been replaced by Richard Teng, a senior Binance executive who joined in 2021, the company said. "Binance has seen significant exchange outflows since the announcement, but relative to their total holdings, it’s quite small," Nansen analysts said. Investors pulled around $1.43 billion from the crypto exchange and its U.S. affiliate in June after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the companies. While authorities have probed Zhao and Binance for years, Zhao's exit marks a dramatic development for one of the most powerful figures in the crypto industry.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Nansen, Changpeng Zhao, Zhao, Richard Teng, Binance, Zhao's, Lisa Pauline Mattackal, Jonathan Stempel, Chris Prentice, Michelle Price, Anil D'Silva Organizations: REUTERS, Investors, U.S, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, Justice Department, Thomson Locations: Nansen, Dubai, Seattle, United States, Bengaluru, New York

☆ Italy's privacy regulator looks into online data gathering to train AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsMILAN, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Italy's data protection authority has kicked-off a fact-finding investigation into the practice of gathering large amounts of personal data online for use in training artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, the regulator said on Wednesday. The watchdog is one of the most proactive of the 31 national data protection authorities in assessing AI platform compliance with Europe's data privacy regime known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Earlier this year, it briefly banned popular chatbot ChatGPT from operating in Italy over a suspected breach of privacy rules. "Following the fact-finding investigation, the Authority reserves the right to take the necessary steps, also in an urgent matter", the regulator said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Elvira Pollina, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, General Data Protection, Authority, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Italy, France, Germany

☆ US lawmakers ask SEC to scrutinize Musk comments on Neuralink
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Marisa Taylor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Neuralink logo and Elon Musk photo are seen in this illustration taken, December 19, 2022. Yet Musk, Neuralink's CEO, downplayed investor concerns about the results of its animal testing, the letter said. Musk wrote that "no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant," in a post to his social media site, X, on Sept. 10. Neuralink did not respond to requests for comment on the letter to the SEC. As a result, Musk's statement "may have violated" SEC rules in denying a connection, the lawmakers wrote.

Persons: Elon, Dado Ruvic, Elon Musk, Earl Blumenauer of, Jim McGovern, Barbara Lee, Tony Cardenas, Musk, Neuralink, Marisa Taylor, Michele Gershberg, Marguerita Choy Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Securities and Exchange Commission, Democratic, Reps, Massachusetts, SEC, Reuters, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Thomson Locations: Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Tony Cardenas of California

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - EU lawmakers agreed on Wednesday to draft rules requiring Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, Meta (META.O) and other online services to identify and remove online child pornography, saying that end-to-end encryption would not be affected. EU lawmakers have to thrash out the final details with member states before the draft can become legislation in a process that may be finalised next year. An EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse will be set up to act as a hub of expertise and to forward reports to the police. To avoid mass surveillance, EU lawmakers beefed up detection orders to allow judicial authorities to authorise time-limited orders to find and delete CSAM. These can only be issued if there is reasonable grounds of suspicion of child sexual abuse.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Foo Yun Chee, Alexander Smith Organizations: Facebook, REUTERS, Rights, Google, European, European Union, EU, Liberal, Thomson Locations: Rights BRUSSELS

☆ Exclusive: OPEC hears bearish message on oil from top swap dealer's presentation
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Ahmad Ghaddar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - An OPEC technical panel invited a top financial market dealer to give a presentation this week which painted a bearish outlook for the oil market, according to materials from the presentation seen by Reuters. OPEC - the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - did not immediately reply to a request for comment. London-based Onyx Capital Group is the world's biggest market maker by volume across oil swaps, trading more than 25 billion barrels equivalent a year. The second sell-off, which happened in November, moved the oil market to a collective neutral-to-bearish sentiment, with commercial participants like oil producers and airlines joining financial speculators in seeing a weak outlook. Ministers from OPEC and allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, are due to meet on Sunday to decide on output policy.

Persons: Dado, Greg Newman, Brent, Prince Abdelaziz bin Salman, OPEC's, Onyx, Goldman Sachs, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Jan Harvey Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters ., Onyx Capital, OPEC, Organization of, Petroleum, Onyx, Twitter, Reuters, Saudi Energy, Economic Commission Board, ECB, JPMorgan, BNP, Thomson Locations: OPEC, London, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Kuwait

3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the Alibaba Cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. Two company sources told Reuters that Ma's move had generated a lot of discussion within the company, as did Jiang's post. Alibaba and the Jack Ma Foundation, the philanthropic organization that handles media queries for the billionaire, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In her internal note, Jiang also repeated comments from Ma's family office shared with the Alibaba-owned newspaper South China Morning Post on Friday that Ma remained "very positive" about Alibaba and that his family trust eventually did not sell a single share. The company has also been grappling with some upheaval in its top ranks, welcoming a new CEO, Eddie Wu, in September.

Persons: Dado, Jack Ma's, Jiang Fang, Jiang, Jack Ma, Ma, Alibaba, Eddie Wu, Daniel Zhang, Casey, Jenny Wang, Brenda Goh, David Evans Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, HK, Reuters, Jack Ma Foundation, China Morning, Casey Hall, Thomson Locations: Rights SHANGHAI, BEIJING, Shanghai, Beijing

☆ Australia goes on cyber offensive with sweeping resilience plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Byron Kaye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Broken Ethernet cable is seen in front of binary code and words "cyber security" in this illustration taken March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSYDNEY, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Australia will give cyber health checks for small businesses, increase cyber law enforcement funding and introduce mandatory reporting of ransomware attacks under a security overhaul announced on Wednesday after a spate of attacks. "We cannot continue as we have," Cyber Security and Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil told reporters in Sydney. Unveiling the seven-year strategy, O'Neil said that while large businesses received some of the biggest cyber attacks, they typically recovered, but attacks on small and medium-size businesses could be terminal. "Minister O'Neil's Strategy establishes cyber security as a unifying nationwide endeavour," he added.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Clare O'Neil, O'Neil, Aidan Tudehope, O'Neil's, telco, Byron Kaye, Stephen Coates Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Labor, Security, Home Affairs, Australian Cyber Security, U.S, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Macquarie Technology, telco Optus, Singapore Telecommunications, Medibank, Thomson Locations: Australia, Sydney, Britain

☆ Bitcoin rises 5.7% to $37,802
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

A representation of cryptocurrency bitcoin is seen in front of a stock graph and U.S. dollar in this illustration taken, January 24, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 22 (Reuters) - Bitcoin rose 5.7 % to $37,802 at 2129 GMT on Wednesday, adding $2,044 to its previous close. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is up 42.5% from the year's low of $26,533 on Oct. 11. Ether , the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, rose 7.94 % to $2,087.9 on Wednesday, adding $153.6 to its previous close. Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado, Nilutpal, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Bitcoin, Bengaluru

NatWest Group bank logo and decreasing stock graph are seen in this illustration taken March 12, 2023. "I will explore options for a NatWest retail share offer in the next 12 months subject to supportive market conditions and achieving value for money," Hunt said on Wednesday. NatWest shares dipped on Hunt's comments and were last down 1.1% at 204.7 pence, compared with a 0.2% fall in the FTSE 100 (.FTSE) index. The stock is the worst performing FTSE 100 British bank stock this year, down more than a fifth, according to Eikon data. That investment turned sour for many and shares in the renamed holding company International Distributions Service (IDSI.L) are now worth 25% less than its 330 pence offer price.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Jeremy Hunt, Hunt, Sid, Alasdair Haynes, Nigel Farage, Alison Rose, Iain Withers, Sinead Cruise, David Milliken, Sarah Young, William James, Elaine Hardcastle, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: NatWest Group, REUTERS, Companies, NatWest, Aquis, Royal Mail, Distributions Service, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson

☆ German court ruling could cost Intel billions of euros in subsidies - state minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with a displayed Intel logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBERLIN, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The negative court ruling on German finances last week could cost Intel billions of euros in subsidies for planned chip-making plants in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the state economy minister was quoted as saying by magazine WirtschaftsWoche. Berlin had agreed subsidies worth nearly 10 billion euros with the U.S. chipmaker, a person familiar with the matter had told Reuters when Intel announced its plans. "When Germany cannot afford such future projects like Intel anymore, then the economic damage will be enormous and the image damage gigantic," Sven Schulze, economy minister of Saxony-Anhalt was quoted as saying. Reporting by Matthias Williams; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Madeline ChambersOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Sven Schulze, Matthias Williams, Sarah Marsh, Madeline Chambers Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, U.S, Reuters, Intel, Thomson Locations: Saxony, Anhalt, Berlin, Germany

U.S. Dollar and Euro banknotes are seen in this illustration taken July 17, 2022. Deutsche Bank's CVIX (.DBCVIX) - the currency market's version of Wall St's "fear index" of stock volatility and a weighted average of implied "vol" in nine major pairings - has basically imploded. By driving short-term dollar cash rates and U.S. bond yields higher over the past 20 months, the Fed basically sucked cash from the wider investment world and supercharged dollar exchange rates everywhere. Now that it looks done, the buck's finally on the back foot - plumbing levels not seen since August. With implied volatility directionally biased, the dollar index and the CVIX are typically well correlated and both peaked in tandem in same month of September last year.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Deutsche Bank's, Chris Turner, Francesco Pesole, BOJ, BOE, Marcelli, Morgan Stanley, Matthew Hornbach, David Evans Organizations: REUTERS, Deutsche, U.S, ING, Graphics Reuters, Reuters, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and Bank of England, ECB, UBS Global Wealth, Treasury, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, U.S . Federal, Japan, U.S

Investors cautioned that tax breaks would not be sufficient to raise business investment while UK interest rates stayed high. But Wednesday, equity markets focused on Hunt's business boosts, such as a move to make full expensing on investment permanent. UK stock markets have underperformed their European and U.S. peers in 2023. The FTSE 100 index 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio is around 10.7, about half that of U.S. stocks, with Hunt's budget unlikely to move the dial too far. Reuters GraphicsSTERLING SOGGYThe pound struggled to gain any traction on the back of Hunt's budget.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Kwasi Kwarteng, Leigh Himsworth, Simon Harvey, Philip Shaw, Thomas McGarrity, Fuller, Smith, Turner, Oli Creasey, It's, BoE, GILTS, Craig Erlam, Goldman Sachs, Naomi Rovnick, Samuel Indyk, Lucy Raitano, Amanda Cooper, Harry Robertson, Angus MacSwan Organizations: REUTERS, Wednesday, Traders, Investors, Fidelity International, Reuters Graphics, Bank of England, BT, Investec, RBC Wealth Management, Reuters, BREWERS, Debt Management, Reuters Graphics STERLING, Thomson Locations: U.S, Cheviot, gilts, London

The A$300 billion ($195.24 billion) pension fund was against the original offer, which it also said substantially undervalued the company's ability to profit from Australia's shift to renewable energy. Under the new terms offered by Brookfield, the A$9.43 per share bid remains but some investors can stay invested in the energy markets business that would be owned by Brookfield. Brookfield's consortium partner EIG Partners would take on Origin's integrated gas business which includes the 27.5% stake in Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG). If that bid fails to achieve 75% shareholder support, an alternative proposal has been lodged that would see Origin sell the energy markets business to Brookfield for A$12.3 billion. DONE TALKINGFollowing the announcement of the revised offer, EIG CEO Blair Thomas told Reuters that he was done talking to AustralianSuper.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Australia's, EIG, Scott Perkins, Blair Thomas, Allan Gray, Simon Mawhinney, Mawhinney, Chris Bowen, Scott Murdoch, Lewis Jackson, Praveen Menon, Lincoln, Sonali Paul, Jamie Freed Organizations: Brookfield, REUTERS, SYDNEY, Brookfield ., EIG Partners, Australia Pacific LNG, Reuters, Brookfield consortium's, Energy, Thomson Locations: Brookfield, Sydney, Australia

☆ US authorities set to unveil settlement with Binance -source
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Smartphone with displayed Binance logo and representation of cryptocurrencies are placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken, June 8, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - U.S. government authorities are expected to unveil a settlement with Binance Holdings on Tuesday, resolving a years-long investigation into the world's largest crypto exchange, according to a source familiar with the matter. The deal, which will include charges against individuals and resolve allegations of violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and other U.S. laws, involves multiple U.S. agencies: the Justice Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the source said. Reporting by Chris PrenticeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Chris Prentice Organizations: REUTERS, Binance Holdings, Justice Department, Futures Trading Commission, Treasury, Network, Thomson

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing RightsNov 20 (Reuters) - OpenAI's board of directors approached rival Anthropic's CEO about replacing chief Sam Altman and potentially merging the two AI startups, according to two people briefed on the matter. The news, reported earlier by The Information on Monday, follows various reported calls to find Altman's successor days after OpenAI's board ousted him. OpenAI declined to comment and board member Adam D'Angelo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Sunday the board offered ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to be its interim chief, who accepted. By Monday, nearly all of the startup's more than 700 employees threatened to quit, including one of its executives on OpenAI's now four-person board.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, OpenAI's, OpenAI, Adam D'Angelo, Emmett Shear, Altman, Anthropic, Claude, Jeffrey Dastin, Urvi, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Sam Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Sunday, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, Bengaluru

☆ Broadcom plans to close $69 billion VMWare deal on Wednesday
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] 3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the VMware cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing RightsNov 21 (Reuters) - Broadcom (AVGO.O) said it planned to close its $69 billion acquisition of cloud computing firm VMWare (VMW.N) on Wednesday, wrapping up one of the biggest takeover deals in the technology industry that was closely scrutinized by regulators globally. Some investors in the companies had feared about the outcome of the deal after reports said last month that rising Sino-U.S. tensions could lead China's regulator to scuttle the deal. Broadcom shares were down more than 1%, while VMware was down 4.6%. The deal was previously expected to close by Nov. 26.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Biden, Bernstein, Zaheer Kachwala, Mary Varghese, Siu, Anil D'Silva, Shounak Organizations: VMware, REUTERS, Broadcom, VMWare, Thomson Locations: China, U.S, Beijing, Washington, Bengaluru, Hong Kong

☆ Medical device maker Medtronic raises fiscal 2024 profit view
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Medtronic Plc logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, April 10, 2023. Medtronic joins medical device makers including Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) and Boston Scientific(BSX.N) that have benefited from soaring demand for non-urgent surgeries. It now expects profit to be between $5.13 per share and $5.19 per share for the fiscal year 2024, above the range of $5.08 per share to $5.16 per share expected previously. On an adjusted basis, the Dublin-based company reported a profit of $1.25 per share for the second quarter, above analysts' average estimate of $1.18 per share, according to LSEG data. Reporting by Khushi Mandowara and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja DesaiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Medtronic, Khushi Mandowara, Christy Santhosh, Pooja Desai Organizations: REUTERS, Abbott, Abbott Laboratories, Boston, Thomson Locations: Dublin, Bengaluru

The lawsuit also alleged that Pfizer, despite knowing of the quality-control issues, persuaded Texas' Medicaid program to add Quillivant to its list of preferred drugs. The lawsuit accuses the companies of defrauding the state's Medicaid program, and seeks unspecified money damages from the companies. Pfizer and Tris, which manufactured the drug for Pfizer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017 warned Tris of manufacturing lapses. Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ken Paxton, Pfizer, Tris, Paxton, Quillivant, Tarik Ahmed, Brendan Pierson, Alexia Garamfalvi, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Pfizer, REUTERS, Texas, Tris, Republican, Nextwave Pharmaceuticals, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Southern, of, Thomson Locations: Harrison County , Texas, Texas, U.S, Manhattan, of New York, New York

Microsoft (MSFT.O) owns 49% of the for-profit operating company, according to sources familiar with the matter. Other investors and employees control 49%, with 2% owned by OpenAI's nonprofit parent, according to Semafor. OpenAI's board fired Altman on Friday after a "breakdown of communications," according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Venture capital investors usually hold board seats or voting power in their portfolio companies but OpenAI is controlled by its nonprofit parent company OpenAI Nonprofit, which according to OpenAI's website was created to benefit "humanity, not OpenAI investors." Nonprofit boards have legal obligations to the organizations they oversee.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Altman, Minor Myers, Paul Weitzel, Weitzel, Steve Jobs, Anna Tong, Krystal Hu, Jody Godoy, Tom Hals, Kenneth Li, Lisa Shumaker, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Microsoft, Venture, OpenAI Nonprofit, University of Connecticut, Nonprofit, University of Nebraska, Apple, Thomson Locations: OpenAI, San Francisco, New York

The market reaction reflects an expectation that a $4 billion payment would be manageable for Binance, four crypto investors and market participants said. Its status has for years left investors wary of risks to the wider market from a string of regulatory and legal headaches facing Binance. Any resolution of the DOJ probe would remove the risk to the crypto market of Binance's sudden collapse, said Sui Chung, CEO of crypto index provider CF Benchmarks. "Binance disappearing overnight remains a potential systemic risk to the crypto market," Chung said. Other investors cited the personal wealth of Zhao as being sufficient to cover any settlement with the DOJ.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Bitcoin, Binance, Anatoly Crachilov, Crachilov, Changpeng Zhao, Zhao, Sui Chung, Chung, Tom Wilson, Elizabeth Howcroft, Susan Fenton Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Justice Department, Bloomberg, Reuters, London, Asset Management, DOJ, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, Assets Fund, Thomson Locations: Binance, London

☆ Exclusive: China's state banks seen swapping and selling dollars for yuan
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Chinese Yuan and U.S. dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSHANGHAI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - China's major state-owned banks were seen exchanging yuan for U.S. dollars in the onshore swap market and selling those dollars in spot currency markets this week, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Some market participants said state banks might be trying to speed the yuan's gains and spur exporters to convert more of their FX receipts into yuan. The selling of dollars by state banks caused the onshore spot yuan to briefly touch 7.1296 per dollar, firmer than its daily official guidance for the first time in four months. To me, it looks like they are doing preparatory work ahead of a policy rate cut," said Kiyong Seong, lead Asia macro strategist at Societe Generale.

Persons: Yuan, Dado Ruvic, Kiyong Seong, Zhi Xiaojia, Zhi, Simon Cameron, Moore, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Federal, People's Bank of China, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, Shanghai, Thomson Locations: Asia, China, United States

☆ Celsius Network pivots to bitcoin mining after bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Celsius Network logo and representations of cryptocurrencies are seen in this illustration taken, June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Crypto lender Celsius Network has scaled back its post-bankruptcy business plans to focus only on bitcoin mining, citing U.S. regulators' skepticism of its other planned business lines. A U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan had approved Celsius' Chapter 11 plan on Nov. 9, clearing the company to return cryptocurrency to customers and create a new company owned by Celsius creditors. The SEC did not definitively say during Celsius' bankruptcy case whether the new company's business plans would violate U.S. law, but it reserved the right to make that determination later. Bitcoin mining was always meant to be the "core business" of the new company, Celsius said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, BlockFi, Dietrich Knauth, Alexia Garamfalvi, Richard Chang Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Securities & Exchange Commission, SEC, Arrington Capital, Bitcoin Corp, Voyager, Thomson Locations: U.S, Manhattan, New Jersey

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