Billionaire Mike Novogratz's Surprising Reason for Endorsing Binance, Urges Success for CEO CZ – Here’s What You Need to Know

cryptonews.com:

The industry and its participants need the major crypto exchange Binance and its loyal retail following, said Michael Novogratz, the founder of the US-based crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital Holdings,

Speaking to Real Vision Crypto, Novogratz commented on the announcement of charges against a crypto company made by the US Department of Justice earlier this month, which had the cryptoverse speculating which exchange it could have been.

"And I was like, please don't have it be Binance," said Novogratz. "We need to cheer for Binance." 

It turned out to be a little-known Hong Kong-registered exchange called Bitzlato. Its Russian founder Anatoly Legkodymov was arrested by US authorities for allegedly processing $700 million in illicit funds. Binance, however, had had some involvement in the case, with the US Department of the Treasury writing in an order that the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume was Bitzlato’s top receiving counterparty of bitcoin (BTC) between May 2018 and September 2022. Binance said that it "provided substantial assistance to international law enforcement partners in support of this investigation." 

Novogratz went on to note that Binance has a "giant percentage of the liquidity" and that CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has always been focused on customer service. Therefore, said Novogratz,

"He's got a very loyal, giant retail following that believe[s] in our ecosystem. We need those guys."

Novogratz noted that he sees numerous people online who seem to want Binance and CZ to fail, but "it's the wrong thinking," he said, adding:

"We need CZ to succeed."

Novogratz suggested that the success of this major exchange would enable it to maintain the retail following it has, while bringing in more