Our Crypto Upvotes experts analyzed the claims of the regulator and told about their impact and implications for the entire crypto industry

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed lawsuits against two of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges – Binance and Coinbase. The regulator is making a number of allegations against both. And the main ones are the recognition of a number of cryptocurrency assets that are traded on the platforms as unregistered securities. Which fall under the jurisdiction of the regulator.

In the June 5 lawsuit against Binance and the June 6 lawsuit against Coinbase, the regulator named several cryptocurrencies as securities:

In the first case they were Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Filecoin (FIL), Cosmos (ATOM). And Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), Algorand (ALGO), Axie Infinity (AXS) and COTI (COTI).

The second added Chiliz (CHZ), Flow (FLOW), Internet Computer (ICP), NEAR Protocol (NEAR). And Voyager VGX (VGX), Dash (DASH) and NEXO (NEXO).

Speaking on CNBC after the Coinbase lawsuit was filed, SEC head Gary Gensler said that cryptocurrencies are essentially unnecessary at all. “We don’t need more digital currency. We already have a digital currency. It’s called the U.S. dollar. It’s called the euro or the yen. They’re all digital now,” the head of the commission said. On Bloomberg, he later advised the cryptosphere to bring its business in line with government policy. Otherwise it risks “falling apart like a house of cards.”

SEC targets seriously and will not back down

The lawsuits have just been filed, and there is no court precedent yet to say how the process will go and what decision will be made. But based on the trend, the SEC is aiming seriously and will not back down.

But respondents (Binance, Coinbase and other companies) can refer to the fact that the regulation does not contain clear criteria for classifying this or that cryptocurrency as a security. And because of that, each company decides for itself which cryptocurrencies to work with and which not.

If there is at least one positive decision in favor of the SEC. In that case, the precedent system will play against exchanges working with the same cryptocurrencies. Binance and Coinbase are not the only companies being sued, the regulator’s website shows. But these two companies are the largest in the world and work with clients from a large number of countries. And that is why there is more interest in them.

This method of regulation shows that the regulator does not want to limit itself by the law, each time solving the issue through the courts. This approach expands its opportunities in relation to specific players in the market. And which contradicts the stability of the civil turnover.

We can expect a large number of lawsuits from the SEC

The new lawsuits are almost a classic SEC claim about trading securities in the absence of registration. In the case of crypto-assets, any level of dispute will require a determination. Whether the crypto-assets traded on the site are securities in terms of U.S. law.

Moving the SEC’s claims to court might be necessary, for example, to give precedent to the recognition of a particular crypto-asset as a security. This would make it easier to prosecute other venues that trade similar crypto-assets in the future.

Our experts note that similar claims were made in April against a number of companies and citizens. Which are related to crypto exchange Bittrex, we can expect a large number of lawsuits against other major crypto exchanges as well. That said, as we can see, the SEC is not limited to U.S. jurisdictions.

Historic event

In the US, there is still no separate legislation for the cryptocurrency industry. The situation is still at the stage of trying to divide influence between the SEC and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). Both agencies would like to have control and influence over the cryptocurrency industry. And so both regularly issue statements along the lines of “all cryptocurrency falls under securities law” or “all cryptocurrency is a commodity”.

As a result of this confrontation, there are still no clear norms for valuation and assignment of assets to a particular class. Whereas in the European Union, a set of rules has already been developed. And even signed a set of rules for crypto-business called Markets in Crypto-Asset (MiCA).

The opposition is interesting and in some ways even historic in the development of the crypto industry. It really is a kind of fateful moment. And that will determine the vector of further development for several years. However, it will not take a week or a month for the situation to develop and the first decision on such a lawsuit will be a precedent.

Data from the TradingView analytics platform became available to users directly through a Binance account

Binance has announced the integration of spot trading with its TradingView analytics platform. This will expand the exchange’s users’ ability to analyze trading strategies with an additional range of charts and tools, according to a press release.

The initial integration of Binance Futures Trading with TradingView in December 2022 went very well. The platform’s customers appreciated the convenience of a single login to trade directly on Binance. And the use of TradingView’s wide range of graphical tools for performance analysis. For example such as cross-comparison of crypto-assets and securities. As well as benchmarking between different cryptocurrencies.

Our experts note that according to the exchange’s instructions, in order to use the new feature. Then the user has to log in to his TradingView account and select Binance as a broker. Then, after logging in to his account at the cryptocurrency exchange, he will need to connect his TradingView account to it.

After that the user will be redirected to the Trading View interface. The order history on the Binance spot market will automatically synchronize with the Trading View account.

U.S. exchange regulators are pressing charges against Binance and trying to disconnect it from the U.S. market. Our experts tell us who can take advantage of this situation and what the risks are for Binance and its users

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit against Binance and its executives. The regulator intends to completely deprive Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange of the U.S. market. It also accuses it of facilitating illegal activities and trade manipulation.

The text of the indictment took 74 pages. Citing quotes from internal chats, to which the agency managed to gain access, the service representatives accuse the exchange, its head Changpeng Zhao and former director of compliance Samuel Lim. That they knowingly allowed Americans to trade cryptocurrency derivatives without a license, in flagrant violation of U.S. law. The CFTC also alleges that Binance circumvented money laundering laws (AMLs). And “know your customer” (KYC) rules deliberately helped large U.S. clients circumvent their own compliance procedures.

What are the goals of U.S. regulators ?

The CFTC seeks a complete ban on Binance in the U.S. and return all trading revenues and commissions received from transactions of users from the U.S. Because, in their opinion, they were obtained illegally. The CFTC estimates that in 2019 and 2020, 18 to 20% of Binance’s revenues were generated by “illegal” transactions of U.S. citizens, although no data for later periods are provided. The exchange’s management supposedly turned a blind eye to the violations to maintain its market share in a key jurisdiction.

The document alleges that the exchange offered U.S. residents to trade leveraged futures and options contracts on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin without registering with the CFTC as a futures commodities trader (FCM). The agency considers these assets to be commodities, which is at odds with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which considers most crypto assets to be securities.

Our experts point out that different agencies in the U.S. have different views on what is going on. This inconsistency in itself can create more doubts. But lawyers can also use some language against others in their defense strategies. Even if a serious trial were to begin on any of the named charges. Then the investigation itself will require many months of work by lawyers on both sides of the conflict, our Crypto-Upvotes experts say.

Charges are directed at Binance, not a separate division of Binance.US

Binance.US is a separate division of Binance for the U.S. market. This division does not offer derivatives trading and is not mentioned in the complaint. There is a separate legal entity behind the platform, while Binance itself has no registration in the United States. And access to the exchange for American citizens is prohibited. In this case, the representatives of the CFTC precisely put forward charges against “global” Binance. They argument that the exchange falls under the U.S. law, working with local customers.

The CFTC complaint says that Binance not only serviced American users. But also deliberately didn’t take measures to block their accounts. Exchange executives also allegedly advised large institutional customers to move trading accounts to jurisdictions inaccessible to U.S. regulators. And they didn’t officially encourage the use of VPNs to bypass blockades. A spokesman for Radix Trading of Chicago confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that they had been trading on Binance for several years through offshore affiliates and a separate broker. While having legal backing for any cryptocurrency transactions.

The regulator also uncovered several other likely violations based on conversations from internal correspondence in work chats. In addition, the CFTC accused Binance of having about 300 internal trading accounts under its management. Which “directly or indirectly belonged to the head of Binance,” and the exchange failed to disclose their existence amid an anti-insider trading policy. Zhao responded in a statement, calling the allegations “an incomplete statement of facts.” And claims that Binance “under no circumstances” manipulates the market ! And “affiliates’ liquidity work” is under special control.

Who benefits from this?

The lawsuit against Binance is not the first precedent for a confrontation between the CFTC and the crypto business. In October 2020, the agency brought charges against BitMEX and its three founders, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed. The exchange actually invented a new format for cryptocurrency derivatives – perpetual futures contracts. And it created an entire market around the instrument, whose popularity quickly led to its appearance on other trading platforms as well. The Commission also accused BitMEX of operating in the U.S. futures market without proper authorization and FCM status.

The case was closed when BitMEX agreed to pay a record $100 million fine for the crypto industry, as well as to forcibly close the accounts of all U.S. customers and implement proper anti-money laundering measures. Hayes and Delo resigned from the company and pleaded guilty. They each paid an additional $10 million fine and were sentenced to two years’ probation.

This ended BitMEX’s influence in the cryptocurrency derivatives market. Which, until August 2019, it controlled nearly 100 percent of. However, her absence led to the rise of other platforms that now dominate this niche. These include Deribit, ByBit, and Binance, which regularly lists perpetual futures on most liquid crypto assets in demand.

Our Crypto Upvotes experts believe that if Binance is forced to reduce its share of this market. ByBit, as the next largest exchange in terms of trading volumes on the futures market, will benefit the most from this. Kraken and Coinbase will be able to pick up the remaining volumes, given that both have the necessary statuses and licenses to operate in the US.

When it comes to the global crypto market, Binance’s role as a player in the U.S. is not as significant compared to other states. Binance.US has tried to increase its share and its weight by buying distressed companies’ assets. Which left the market in 2022, but U.S. authorities prevented Binance from doing so.

What are the risks for exchange users?

Coinbase, Gemini, eToro, Kraken and some other platforms are much more present in the U.S. market than Binance. And also the volume of trades is ahead of its U.S. division. In this regard, leaving Binance from the North American market will not create difficulties for U.S. investors. Which have alternative exchanges, causing less questions from regulators.

For quite a long time Binance has been under the scrutiny of U.S. regulators. Major business media outlets have released several investigations about the internal structure of the exchange’s business. At the same time accusing it of various manipulations or non-transparent practices. The day after the CFTC lawsuit, the British Financial Times spoke about Binance’s longstanding ongoing relationship with China. And at the same time referring to internal documents, which came to the journalists of this edition. A few days before that, the exchange experienced a technical failure due to which it stopped trading for four hours. The cumulative negative events inevitably affected traders’ actions – in less than a week $2.2 billion worth of assets were withdrawn from this exchange.

In the context of the CFTC’s lawsuit, the fact that there is access to the correspondence of Binance employees is alarming. Our experts think that it might be an indirect evidence of an authorized “high-level” surveillance. Which could be due to investigations into very serious allegations. But thanks to the fairly distributed structure of Binance, we do not see any real risks of a complete trading stop or paralyzing difficulties.

The decision to withdraw assets from centralized exchanges depends on each investor’s individual needs and strategy! All investors need to keep in mind that withdrawing tokens to non-custodial wallets in and of themselves can seriously reduce risks of holding cryptocurrencies.

Attack of American regulators on BUSD and what consequences will face Binance from impossibility to issue its own stablecoin. Review by Crypto-Upvotes experts

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has informed Paxos Trust that it plans to sue it for violating investor protection laws. According to the regulator, Binance USD (BUSD), the third most capitalized stablecoin, is the third-largest. This digital asset, which Paxos issues, is an unregistered security. It is not yet known whether the SEC notice specifically relates to the issuance of BUSD, its listing on exchanges, or both.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has since ordered Paxos to cease issuing new BUSD tokens altogether. In listing the consequences of stopping the issuance of BUSD, Changpeng Zhao, head of the Binance exchange, admitted. That capitalization of this asset will continue to decline and investors will start to switch to other stablecoins.

Risks to other stablecoins are high

News about banning issue of stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD) had a negative impact on the market. But not as much as from the collapsed FTX exchange. The SEC is investigating the Binance exchange. So Paxos is also in target of the regulator and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

The regulator considers BUSD to be an unregistered security. But with that logic, other stablecoins, USDT and USDC, would also be at risk. Most likely, someone wants to get control of Binance. And creating problems not only for the leading exchange, but also for the whole industry. The risks to other Stablecoins are high.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said he will continue to support BUSD for the foreseeable future. The company predicts that customers will switch to other stablecoins. Therefore, the platform will make changes accordingly.

U.S. regulators declare war on stabelcoins

There are no frontiers for U.S. regulators. All it takes is one American citizen using some platform or protocol. For US regulators to consider these protocols as belonging to their jurisdiction. Attack on stablecoin issuers was expected, the SEC has been saying for years that these companies are not transparent enough. And they don’t comply with U.S. banking laws, don’t have the necessary reserves and so on. If SEC attacked a BUSD issuer, it would be wise to get ready for attacks on other stablecoins, especially USDT and USDC. Given USDT’s majority share of stablecoin market. An attack on them is fraught with a serious crisis in cryptocurrency market and subsequent collapse of all coins without exception.

Our experts note that U.S. regulators have openly declared war on at least Binance itself. In a broader sense, this is a continuation of the fight against stablecoins as an element of opposition to the classical financial system on behalf of the Web 3.0 sphere.

This is a global and extremely important event. It should be taken carefully, and you should read the contents of the documents published by the NYDFS regulator about the ban on continuing to issue BUSD. In fact, it means banning BUSD, but it may be followed by a series of lawsuits.

Our experts are sure that Binance was ready for that. And its management will find a legal and reasonable way out of this situation. Further wide usage of BUSD is out of the question. Perhaps, there will be some alternative or solution. The other major exchanges that issue stablecoins should be prepared for an attack and take some action. In fact, war has been declared on all of them.

CoinMarketCap chose winners and sent them tokens. As a result, they only made it to a few wallets and were sold, collapsing prices for those projects. Crypto-Upvotes expert review.

Cryptoprojects claim that advertising campaigns from CoinMarketCap (CMC) were scamming and caused their token prices to fall. The developers accuse CMC of foul play in promoting their airdrops. And they claim that cryptocurrencies ended up in only a few wallets, indicating that the system could be manipulated.

CoinMarketCar is one of the largest aggregators of cryptocurrency market data, launched in 2013. This service collects information from most trading venues, tracking key metrics of tokens and crypto exchanges. In 2020, Binance bought this platform.

Blockchain project SaTT reported that a promotional campaign on SMS was paid for in December 2022. It ended with 84% of the issued tokens reaching just 21 wallets. As part of this promotion, 25,000 winning addresses were to receive 4,000 SATT each.

SaTT said that shortly after Airdrop, 20,900 addresses “automatically transferred tokens to 21 wallets.” Which sold those tokens a few days later, generating about $142k. As a result of this sale, the SATT price fell 70% in 10 days – from the end of Airdrop on December 1 until those wallets sold their tokens on December 10.

Other projects also faced a problem with Airdrops on CoinMarketCap

The TokenBot project faced a similar problem. Its founder Shaun Newsum said that he also held an airdrop on CMC. According to him, the platform identified 30,000 winners of the airdrop. TokenBot sent out its tokens to a batch of 4,000 winners to begin with. And about 3,300 of them ended up sending funds to a single wallet. Newsum said TokenBot lost about $20k as a result of the incident.

“Obviously, some person figured out how to play on CoinMarketCap. <…> If we had sent a big batch, this whole airdrop would have been a complete disaster,” said the head of TokenBot.

However, Newsum said he had received an apology from CMC. And he was told that the company was investigating the situation and would return with an updated list of project winners.

The SaTT project team claims to have uncovered 18 other token and NFT eirdrop projects totaling $6.6 million, which have been held at CMC since July 2022, and were also allegedly “infected with scams.” These included projects such as TopGoal, OwlDAO and AgeofGods. SaTT suggested that either hackers had created multiple fake accounts on CMC, or that these were internal actions of this platform.

Explanations from CoinMarketCap

A CMC official responded to the allegations by saying that at least four of the projects named by SaTT had not yet distributed awards. And therefore, it is “impossible” that they have encountered “malicious” activity. He also noted that other than SaTT, AgeOfGods and TokenBot, no one else had complained about such problems.

However, a CMC official admits that there is a bot problem. According to him, the platform team is constantly working to improve its systems to limit this problem. To prevent bots from participating, CMC uses CAPTCHA verification and email verification. It also plans to integrate two-factor authentication.

Opening of National Exchange of Indonesia is scheduled for this year. And it should take place before the change of transfer of crypto-assets supervision to the new regulator. Review by Crypto-Upvotes experts

The Indonesian government plans to launch a national cryptocurrency exchange as part of financial sector reform. The project is to be completed in 2023, before the authority to oversee cryptocurrencies in the country is transferred to a new regulator.

The local Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI) now regulates crypto-assets in Indonesia. According to a spokesman for the agency, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will take over oversight of cryptocurrencies over the next two years. A national cryptocurrency exchange should already be up and running by the time regulators switch powers.

In 2021, Indonesia’s Central Bank Governor Perry Warjiyo announced the regulator’s intention to issue its own national digital currency (CBDC). Currently, Indonesian law prohibits the use of cryptocurrency as a payment instrument. However, trading in digital assets in Indonesia is allowed.

In 2018, Tokocrypto crypto exchange was officially launched in the country. The platform became the first cryptocompany in Indonesia approved by BAPPEBTI. Since 2020, Binance has been one of the investors of the exchange. The size of Changpeng Zhao’s stake has not been disclosed, but last December the media twice reported on the leading Binance’s plans to gradually increase its stake in Tokocrypto to 100%. Each of the news was accompanied by a sharp rise in the platform’s native token (TKO).

Our experts note that Asian market is probably important to Binance as a whole. And the exchange is entering it by acquiring stakes in local trading venues. In late November last year, the exchange acquired a stake in Japan’s Sakura Exchange (SEBC), a platform officially regulated by the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA). On January 2, local media reported on Binance’s plans to buy one of Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Gopax.

Elon Musk manipulates cryptocurrency market with his followers they buy after his every hint.

In recent years, it may have become customary for crypto market participants that Dogecoin’s price reacts to publications and comments by Elon Musk. In addition, he became the owner of the social network Twitter at the end of October. The head of Tesla and SpaceX has openly talked about his love for ‘this meme cryptocurrency and repeatedly hinted at its integration into the Twitter interface.

As the head of Twitter, Elon Musk naturally partially joined the cryptocurrency community. Which settled on the platform at the stage of crypto-business birth. Musk participates in Twitter Spaces broadcasts with opinion leaders from the cryptosphere and comments on high-profile news in his own account. When Elon Musk accepted DOGE Community Influencer’s offer under the nickname @dogeofficialceo to join the broadcast with his followers on December 16, the cryptocurrency meme rate jumped 5%.

Not everyone is happy with the billionaire’s policies as the new owner of Twitter. When, by Musk’s decision, moderators of the social network blocked the account. Which tracked his private jet’s flights. In response, Ethereum ecosystem founder Vitalik Buterin openly called it a manifestation of selective censorship. Which “puts Twitter on the road to authoritarianism.”

Musk uses the Twitter polling interface to get followers’ opinions on various social networking policies. Starting with a vote on the need to restore former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account. Elon Musk got as far as a poll on whether he should stay in charge of the service. By a relatively slim margin, most of the votes were positive. Musk joked that he would leave when he “found some crazy person” to replace him, and that he would then move to the development team. When the vote ended not in Musk’s favor, the price of Dogecoin plummeted more than 10%.

Manipulation of price Dogecoin

Dogecoin holders may remember May 2021, when the price of DOGE hit an all-time high of $0.73 when Elon Musk mentioned cryptocurrency. Which he did during an interview on Saturday Night Live. By June 2022, as the crypto market faced the consequences of the Terra ecosystem collapse, DOGE was trading 90% below its ATH.

The announcement of any initiative by Elon Musk on Twitter, in one way or another, related to payments. Leads to the fact that Dogecoin begins to actively buy up on exchanges, thereby inflating the rate of this coin. In the comments to Musk’s tweets, there are periodic discussions about how this or that algorithmic trading software. It can track its publications and automatically places buy orders on cryptocurrency exchanges at any mention of DOGE.

By and large, DOGE is a speculative asset. The real popularity of the coin is due to Elon Musk. For this reason, criticism of DOGE from the head of Twitter is able to create significant pressure on the price by sellers. The integration of Dogecoin into Twitter or another Musk project. On the contrary, is capable of significantly inflating the price of the cryptocurrency.

In any case, if Elon Musk does leave his position as Twitter’s head, it will definitely push the price of Dogecoin down. The token rate has already tripled on expectations, and now they are rapidly collapsing. The market reaction will be subdued if Musk leaves office but stays with the company. That would give investors renewed hope for the addition of the coin to the social network.

Twitter Business

On Dec. 22, Twitter added a feature to track cryptocurrency and stock prices in search results using the TradingView infrastructure of the trading platform. Elon Musk openly praised the team’s work and added that this is one of many product improvements that will be added to Twitter Business.

Rumors about the integration of cryptocurrencies into the Twitter interface have been around for quite some time. In June, some of Ilon Musk’s correspondence leaked online. And in the published messages he says that he plans to build a full-fledged financial system in Twitter. In the presentation of the new functionality of the service published on November 27, Musk intentionally concealed the content of the “Payments” slide.

The publication led to an 8% growth of Dogecoin. However, Elon Musk’s favorite coin is not the only candidate for integration into the social network. Crypto speculators are monitoring any Twitter-related news and looking for crypto-assets. Which could also potentially participate in “financial” integrations of the service.

Not accidental leaks of confidential information for manipulation

Shortly before the presentation was published, some of the source code of Twitter’s app for iOS was leaked. Researchers found elements of Signal messenger encryption in that code. About which Musk has repeatedly advised his followers as an alternative to iMessage or WhatsApp. After news of the details of the leak, the price of Signal’s integrated cryptocurrency MobileCoin (MOB) soared by 300%.

It is also known that Binance invested $500 million in the purchase of Twitter by Musk. And its head Changpeng Zhao said that he was always ready to help integrate into the social network technologies segment of Web 3.0. Following Musk’s deal, Binance launched the Binance Bluebird Index, which included the exchange’s native token BNB, Dogecoin and Musk Network (MASK). A cryptocurrency with a relatively low market capitalization raised the hype. And created a wave about its likely integration into the social network. It also led to an almost 400% rise in its price.

The theory about the integration of the MASK token into Twitter was complemented by the fact that the project’s protocol is used to work with social networks. However, on December 21 the developers of Mask Network announced the purchase of Pawoo.net, the second most popular project on the Mastodon platform. The latter is positioning itself as an open-source competitor to Twitter. As of December 18, Twitter banned links to Mastodon and several other social networks. MASK reacted to the news of Pawoo’s purchase with a barely noticeable increase, incomparable to the price hikes during speculation about Twitter’s integration.

In any case, Musk’s attempts to popularize cryptocurrencies have a positive effect on their acceptance in society. Until new laws are passed, Musk will continue to take advantage of his opportunities and will drive up or down the price of cryptocurrencies.

Crypto-Upvotes experts told about the threat of massive asset outflow from the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its opaque financial statements.

Binance is trying to reassure investors of its financial strength after the collapse of rival exchange FTX. The effects are still being felt in crypto markets. Billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency were withdrawn from the exchange in a matter of days.

Outflows from Binance could range from $6 billion to $8 billion, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Tron.
At the same time, analyst firm Nansen reported that users of the trading floor withdrew $3.6 billion in Ethereum. And ERC-20 standard tokens in seven days, while $2 billion was withdrawn in just one day.

After the collapse of FTX and subsequent series of bankruptcies of leading crypto players, major crypto exchanges are trying to convince their customers. That they have enough assets in their wallets and user funds are safe and remain available for withdrawal. Earlier this month, accounting firm Mazars produced “proof of reserves” reports for Binance and other exchanges, including Crypto.com and KuCoin.

At the end of an already difficult week for Binance. Mazars said the firm had suspended activities related to audits of companies in the cryptocurrency industry. This is due to concerns about how such reports are perceived by the public. According to Financial Times sources, media hype was one of the factors that influenced the decision of Mazars.

Published reports on crypto exchanges’ reserves are severely limited in data compared to the results of traditional corporate account auditing procedures. Mazars uses what are known as “consistent procedures” to report on reserve validation. But it does not use asset analysis in the usual sense. No assurances or conclusions are given on the figures in the report in this kind of verification.

Reasons for auditing companies to refuse to work with cryptocurrency exchanges

Mazars’ decision to stop working with Binance. And also for others exchanges was not prompted by specific financial problems at any of the exchanges. The firm’s work was severely limited, and the auditors did not delve too deeply into examining the financial situation of the cryptocurrency platforms.

From a risk perspective, what’s happening with Binance could cause secondary problems. A significant outflow of capital from any business can create local liquidity problems. Even if an exchange is able to cover 100% of deposits, it does not mean that it has sufficient funds or liquid investments.

“The ironic thing about what is happening is that the main trigger in a series of bankruptcies in the cryptocurrency market was the rumors that the head of Binance. Also spread in the public space and his verbal manipulation. And now the main problem for his exchange is the emergence of the same type of rumors around Binance.” – said our expert.

“Black Box” new name for Binance

December 19, Reuters released a story that calls Binance a “black box,” referring to the corporate documents and declarations of the exchange, copies of which journalists were able to access. Among the claims against Binance are the concealment of financial data and the share of its native token (BNB) in the balance sheet. The article also mentions security risks in margin trading. And another portion of doubts about the real volume of user funds reserves.

It has become customary for Binance and its head Changpeng Zhao to publicly refute loud statements by journalists as in official publications of this exchange. And in personal social networks in front of millions of followers. Zhao has repeatedly assured that the Mazars report is “further confirmation” that the exchange’s assets equal or exceed its liabilities to customers.

In the case of Binance, we can talk about an excellent marketing strategy. Which provided a stable inflow of new clients for several years ahead. Therefore, potential liquidity problems may be smoothed out or may not even have started.

Assets on wallets with public addresses of Binance amount to more than $60 billion. This information can be checked through any blockchain browser or on special pages of services that track reserves of cryptocurrencies. At the same time, the company does not disclose information about its liabilities. This makes it difficult to determine its actual financial position.

How stable is crypto exchange Binance?

If the outflow of client funds continues, Binance may have a serious need to plug the holes and credit. And who will give it after the collapse of FTX? That’s the biggest question.

If Binance collapses, it will postpone the recovery of the crypto market for many years. And any positive developments in the next two years could lose any positive impact on the Bitcoin exchange rate.

Theoretically, if we consider the collapse of Binance in FTX scenario. It would cause infrastructural problems for the entire cryptocurrency market. On the one hand, the market would survive and exist regardless of the ability of specific projects to sustain their work. On the other hand, the “huge in its scale project decline” associates the crypto market with Binance.

However, in reality, such an apocalyptic scenario has a rather small chance of realization, our expert believes. Therefore, one should not seriously talk about an urgent withdrawal of funds from Binance.

Rather, the more people do not give in to the trend of cryptocurrency withdrawal, the higher will be the safety of each of participants. For each individual isolated investor, it is more profitable to withdraw money outside of exchange. But at the same time, if the majority will continue to keep cryptocurrency inside the project, it will keep Binance stable and will be beneficial to all, says our expert.

Mazars and Armanino have suspended the practice of providing services to crypto-industry platform. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Auditing firms have begun to refuse to work with companies in the cryptocurrency industry. For example, Mazars, which recently audited Binance reserves, has suspended its audits of cryptocurrency companies. The firm Armanino, which worked with FTX, is also discontinuing its crypto audit practice and turning away clients.

Mazars Group, the French accounting firm that Binance, KuCoin, Crypto.com and other major industry players turned to to verify their reserve assets, stopped all work with cryptocurrencies. That’s because markets don’t trust its “reserve proof”.

A Mazars official said the company would make a statement in due course and declined to comment further. The website where Mazars reports to cryptocurrencies is currently down.

Another auditing company, Armanino, which has been working in the crypto industry since 2014, is also discontinuing its crypto-audit practice. And is giving up on clients, Forbes writes, citing sources familiar with the matter. According to their information, the firm’s cryptocurrency division may be winding down under pressure from Armanino’s non-cryptocurrency clients. These clients are concerned that the reputational risk to the firm would cast doubt on their audits.

Armanino, which had previously inspected OKX and Gate exchanges, was named a defendant in a collective lawsuit in November 2022. For failing to find irregularities at FTX.US after auditing the exchange last year. Collective action was filed by Stephen Pierce, an FTX customer who he claims lost $20,000.

Many accounting firms are afraid to work with cryptocurrency companies. Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, said this in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. When asked why Binance has not engaged an auditor from the “big four” (PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG). He replied that such firms “don’t even know how to audit crypto exchanges.”

The Mazars audit report on Binance’s reserves, published on December 7, drew criticism and sowed some panic in the cryptocurrency community. Customers of the exchange started withdrawing funds and the value of the BNB token started falling. Changpeng Zhao warned employees that a difficult period was coming. And urged to ignore the rumors and assured that the exchange “will survive any crypto winter.”

What to expect from Football Fan Token during FIFA World Cup 2022. Which platforms have joined the sporting event, what happens to the coins of the national teams. And which of the competition-related assets are most attractive for investment

On November 20, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar kicked off and will run until December 18. Cryptocurrency community actively participates in the event. Many platforms are sponsoring it, and cryptocurrency exchanges are adding new fan tokens for football teams and announcing promotions related to the World Cup.

The championship is sponsored by Algorand Blockchain (ALGO), which will continue to help FIFA with developments related to digital assets after this event. World Cup 2022 is also sponsored by Crypto com, a crypto platform. Users of this exchange were able to attend matches and win official paraphernalia.

Crypto exchange Binance launched a promotion for fans called Binance Football Fever 2022. It allows you to win rewards during the Championship by completing tasks. OKX platform launched the OKX Football Festival promotion on the occasion of this event. In which platform users can win participation in NFT airdrop.

Huobi raffled off tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in October, while Poloniex held the “Poloniex FIFA World Cup Carnival” with a prize pool of $100k. Platform MEXC launched a referral program that could win $4.5k, and Gate.io runs the Gate.io World Cup NFT Collection, with a pool of $10k and other prizes.

At the same time, a lot of championship-themed tokens and NFT collections have popped up online due to sports hype. Which have unclear tokenomics and unknown developers. If you want to join the digital celebration of football, it is worth carefully studying the history of each project and its financial component.

Fan tokens from football teams

In September, crypto exchanges MEXC, Gate and OKX added tokens for teams from Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal ahead of FIFA World Cup 2022. The first two coins have been issued on the Bitci platform, while the second two support the Socios and Chiliz platforms.

Argentina – Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG)

Despite the fact that the championship has just started. And Lionel Messi’s team token has already seen a drop of 24% after Argentina’s loss to Saudi Arabia 1:2.

The result of the match was unexpected, as the Saudi team was considered the outsider in the group. The coin has since recovered slightly in the 24 hours since then, rising 4.2% to $5.61. Argentina’s next game is on November 26, their opponent is Mexico.

Brazil – Brazil National Football Team Fan Token (BFT)

The token had been around $1 at the start of the tournament, but dropped 10% on November 23 and is hovering around $0.69. The first match of the team will be on November 24, the Latin American team will play against Serbian team.

Spain – Spain National Football Team Fan Token (SNFT)

The first game of the Spanish national team will be on November 23. It will be played against Costa Rica. The rate of SNFT token before the match is at $0.35 and shows a daily decline of 2.2%.

Portugal – Portugal National Team Fan Token (POR)

The cryptocurrency POR is worth about $4.92 on November 23 and is up 2.9% per day. The team will play their first match against rivals from Ghana on November 24.

France Fan Token (FRA)

The French team’s first game was on November 22. The French defeated Australia 4-1. The FRA token increased by 147% to $0.0013 during the day. Next game of team will be held on November 26, the opponent will be Denmark.

FAN token function has changed

Although Fan tokens were designed to address utilitarian issues. And to enable loyal fans to become more involved in life for their favourite teams. But today, these coins are not being used in the way the developers intended.

Paradoxically, they were originally intended for purely technical functions. Now fan tokens have instead become a kind of “shares” for clubs, according to our Crypto-Upvotes experts.

Because tokens have become priced not in terms of their value to a fan, but in terms of their success and public reputation. In this regard, the fan-token market has become a totalizator. And it has already been compromised by the ability to manipulate the price regardless of the actual success of teams.

Where to invest?

If you consider the investment component of this segment, first of all, you need to keep an eye on platforms and blockchains. Which ones are placing such tokens, not the fan tokens themselves. For example, it looks more strategic to buy a conventional Chiliz (CHZ) token than a coin from some promising sports club.

CHZ cryptocurrency was released back in the fall of 2018 on Ethereum as a control token for a fan token ecosystem that was being created. And a year later, Chiliz Chain of the Ethereum network was created to reduce commissions. This project brought most of its fan community together under the Socios.com aegis. They became the first blockchain project to start issuing tokens for sports fans.

Cryptocurrency Shiliz (CHZ) is quoted at $0.183 on November 23. Before the start of World Cup 2022 it was worth $0.26, but by the evening of November 22 it was down to $0.17. For the previous day the coin grew in price by 2.2%.

In addition to Chiliz and its Social.com platform, Turkish platform Bitci is gaining momentum. It has already issued tokens for football teams of Brazil, Peru and Spain, Turkish national basketball team and many other sports teams. Which are mostly from Turkey and Spanish-speaking countries.