Powers On... is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches the course “Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.” More and more, governments are fearing that they will lose control over aspects of their respective legitimate financial systems, including capital raising and trading, to the hundreds of unlicensed, unregulated centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges worldwide. There is a clear rising chorus of alarm …
Binance US, a United States-based cryptocurrency exchange operating separately from Binance, is looking to go public despite the ongoing regulatory crackdown on Binance. Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of the global exchange Binance, talked about its ongoing regulatory issues and future plans at the blockchain virtual summit REDeFiNE Tomorrow 2021 on Friday. The CEO expressed confidence that Binance is set to face heavy regulations in the future, noting that the company “is in the mindset of shifting from a tech startup to a financial service.” Zhao reiterated that Binance had been aggressively increasing its compliance efforts, including hiring former regulators. …
Binance .US, the American partner of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading value, has completed its first-ever external funding from investors like Circle Ventures. Binance.US has raised more than $200 million in a seed round to reach a pre-money valuation of $4.5 billion, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Wednesday. Circle's venture arm Circle Ventures joined the funding round. “Circle Ventures is excited to invest in Binance.US. We are committed to helping create a robust and competitive digital assets ecosystem,” Circle’s chief financial officer Jeremy Fox-Geen said. The funding round also involved VanEck, one of the first United …
Crypto exchange Binance has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC), according to a June 30 announcement. Binance and SERC will work together to develop digital assets regulations in the country. SERC is looking to leverage Binance’s technical expertise and experience in the field to develop its own legal framework for the digital asset market. Cryptocurrencies are not regulated in Cambodia, and any unlicensed activity involving these digital assets is highly prohibited. The partnership could prove pivotal for the South Asian country, where any crypto-linked activity has been deemed illegal since 2018. Gleb …
BitGo, a major digital asset custody and security company, has hired a former compliance executive of Coinbase. Jeff Horowitz, Coinbase’s former chief compliance officer, is joining BitGo as its new chief compliance officer, the firm announced Jan. 13. Horowitz joins BitGo after serving the same role at Coinbase since July 2018. The new exec will be replacing BitGo’s former CCO Matt Parrella and will oversee the company’s compliance and Anti-Money Laundering programs to ensure compliance and regulatory requirements. Horowitz told Cointelegraph that one of the biggest compliance challenges in serving institutional clients in crypto is to navigate the complex and …