The conviction of Binance and its CEO for money laundering

The comment of Ferdinando Ametrano, CEO of CheckSig, on the conviction of Binance and its CEO for money laundering

The guilty plea by Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) yesterday in a Seattle courtroom did not surprise the market. It is the confirmation of evidence that was known among commentators and experts in the crypto world: violations of anti-money laundering regulations and international sanctions.

The news arrives a few weeks after the conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried for the FTX crack and confirms that the sheriff is finally in town and life is getting tough for criminals and scammers. There are still some opaque issues to be resolved, both on the future of Binance now that CZ has resigned and on other questionable operators, but the market appreciates these cleaning operations and this is confirmed by the price of Bitcoin, the crypto-asset par excellence, which continues to grow in recent weeks.

The only thing the market is afraid of are any financial cracks, holes and shortfalls that may appear on exchange platforms. In fact, it is still not appreciated how wring is leaving one’s crypto-assets on exchange platforms, instead of entrusting them to those intermediaries who undergo independent audits, have insurance guarantees and are able to provide proof-of-reserves. From this point of view, CheckSig is the only Italian crypto company to have these characteristics, among the half dozen truly secure international companies.

This is the reliable and promising market that BlackRock and Fidelity want to enter with their ETFs, regulated by the European regulator with MiCA, taxed by the Italian government according to the criteria defined in the latest financial law. In this market CheckSig presents itself as the best provider of direct services to customers and as enabler for traditional banks and intermediaries.