Binance pleaded guilty to a fine of 4.3 billion, has the United States begun to close the net?

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, resigned as CEO and admitted to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws.

The U.S. Treasury Department noted that Binance's processing of transfers suspected of illegal acts supported a variety of criminal activities, including transactions with terrorist organizations such as Hamas.

Binance pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion in fines, while Changpeng Zhao agreed to pay a $50 million criminal fine.

It is uncertain whether Mr. Zhao will go to jail, but he faces up to 18 months in prison on his current charges.

However, given his behavior of using money to open the way, and his good attitude of admitting guilt, I personally think it is unlikely that he will go in.

In other words, $4.3 billion looks like a lot, but in fact, it is not a nerve-wracking thing for Binance.

Binance's 24-hour spot trading volume is 14 billion dollars, with a handling fee of 14 million, and extensions are 58 billion, with a handling fee of 6 million, adding up to a net turnover of almost 20 million a day.

So $4.3 billion is probably half a year's revenue.

So this money is regarded as Binance and the United States to share the spoils, anyway, it is the money of leeks all over the world.

Thinking about it from another angle, no matter whether the United States uses the excuse of money laundering or supporting terrorism, the final result is only for money, unlike at home, which is to rush to exterminate.

As long as money can solve a problem, it is not a problem.

In this way, Binance can even get the protection of the U.S. government, and things like virtual currencies can have room to survive, which is a good thing in a broad sense.

After this wave of rectification, it is obvious that the United States is unwilling to give up this golden goose that can lay eggs, and many funds in the international community are willing to play this game of beating the drum and passing the flowers, and the United States can still share the commission in it, so why not.

However, this incident also reminds people that Binance's acquisition by the United States means that virtual currencies may be decentralized, but the virtual currency trading market is not "decentralized".

FOR EXAMPLE, IN MARCH 2022, COINBASE SHUT DOWN THE WALLETS OF 25,000 RUSSIAN USERS, SAYING NO, AND THE DECENTRALIZATION OF VIRTUAL CURRENCIES HAS BECOME A JOKE.

I think there is a well-known saying in China, which can roughly express this meaning-

Science knows no borders, but scientists have borders.

In the same way, virtual currencies can be decentralized, but trading platforms cannot be decentralized.

In other words, the cryptocurrency trading platform must comply with the laws and regulations of the country of registration, and if necessary, cooperate with the local government to conduct investigations.

I checked and found that the world's largest trading platforms are registered in South Korea, Japan and the United States.

It shouldn't be too much to classify these three countries as wearing a pair of pants.

Imagine if people all over the world started working on this kind of virtual currency, thinking that they could evade the censorship of their own government, who would ultimately benefit?

This is also why virtual currencies look good and good, as if they are about to overthrow the rule of the dollar at any time, in fact, after so many years, virtual currencies are still in the status of Ponzi schemes, and the actual application scenarios are minimal.

If you think about it on your toes, you can also know that since 1976, when gold was no longer pegged to the currency, the United States has maintained the dollar as the world currency through many aircraft carriers and wars in the past half century.

As long as the dollar is the world's currency, the United States can print money as much as it wants and let other countries bear its inflation.

Even if other countries are dissatisfied, they will engage in currency exchange on a small scale at most, and they will also have to risk the huge credit risk of the other side.

Virtual currencies seem to be challenging the authority of the US dollar and proposing the idea of decentralization, but why are few countries treating it as legal tender?

Because behind the trading platform is the United States, if any country dares to settle with virtual currency, it is equivalent to all its state-owned assets under the control of the United States, directly as a subject country.

Therefore, the existence of virtual currencies is not to decentralize the world at all, but to make the United States more "centralized".

This is also why the United States does not care about the circulation of virtual currency at all, and even encourages and supports it, because virtual currency harvests leeks all over the world, and it is necessary for the United States to get a piece of the pie, such as Binance, which was fined $4.3 billion this time.

Looking back, why did the mainland start to really crack down on virtual currency in the past two years, and it seemed to turn a blind eye before.

Preventing virtual currencies from becoming the next P2P, the bursting of the Ponzi bubble leads to systemic risk, which is only part of the reason, but more because once the money enters these platforms, it is completely out of the control of the government.

But this money does not completely enter a utopian world, but is equivalent to sending money to a country like the United States.

In the past, we didn't interfere too much because our economy is on the rise, and there are many opportunities to make money in the country, so this kind of petty play is harmless at all.

But the last two years have been different, the epidemic, the war and the deterioration of the external environment have caused our economic situation to plummet.

You see, those who got rich first are bent on how to run away, not how to give back to society.

The worse the economic situation, the stronger the desire to make money through speculation.

If left unchecked, there will presumably be more money flowing to such virtual platforms, as was the case in Russia last year.

Even if the funds are rotten, they will rot at home, and confiscating the treasury is much better than being robbed by the United States.

Therefore, the domestic crackdown on virtual currency is unprecedented.

You can search for the word "Binance" on any platform, WeChat, Baidu, Zhihu, and the display result must be "no relevant results yet".

It is said that P2P was so explosive at the beginning, which made the people's resentment boil, and it was not so completely blocked by the Internet, and some clues can still be found now.

Cryptocurrency trading platforms such as "Binance", "Huobi", and "OKX" have been directly cleared on the network, and there is no relevant news, so you can imagine how much of a conflict of interest they have.

Think about it, this thing is in an environment without application scenarios, its value is not as good as P2P, P2P also supported a little small and micro enterprises at the beginning, and finally played a Ponzi scheme is also considered "the original intention is good, but the implementation is crooked".

The virtual currency thing, the original intention does not exist, it is completely the foolish behavior of speculators, and in the end, there is a loophole to transfer assets to some people with bad intentions, which is harvested by the United States.

It has only a negative effect on the development of society, and if it is sealed, it will be sealed.

As for the future of Binance, I think it is still promising, after all, this is an ATM in the United States, which is much more reasonable and legal than harvesting the whole world with dollars.

Some people say that if Binance is completely legal in its future operations, will the United States still be able to get money?

What a joke, Marx said a long time ago, the law is the embodiment of the will of the ruling class, there is no law available, just write one to you.

Complete free decentralization does not exist in this world.