The sudden downfall of Canadian Changpeng Zhao, the crypto titan behind Binance

financialpost.com:

Canadian Changpeng Zhao had long cultivated the image of the rugged pugilist of the cryptocurrencies world.

When his rival Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire collapsed a year ago, Zhao, or “CZ” as his fans call him, was in the middle of it all, yanking his money in a very public way and helping trigger the ultimately fatal run on the firms. Years earlier he claimed the company’s headquarters was wherever he happened to be, a thinly veiled salvo against regulators trying to nail down jurisdiction. And this March, when U.S. regulators charged Zhao and his firm, Binance Holdings, with violating U.S. securities laws, his on-line response was “4,” which is Zhao code for dismissing something as unworthy of his attention.

On Tuesday, though, Zhao cut a very different image in a Seattle courtroom. Dressed in dark suit and pale blue tie before a federal judge, he pleaded guilty to criminal charges for anti-money laundering and U.S. sanctions violations, including allowing transactions with Hamas and other terrorist groups, under a sweeping deal with the Justice department designed to keep the biggest crypto exchange operating. Binance itself agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay over US$4 billion in penalties. Zhao stepped down as CEO and will pay a US$50 million fine.

Zhao’s capitulation in many ways is the culmination of a multi-year dragnet by international regulators who sought to rein in and impose regulations on Binance — and, by extension, the broader industry.

Moreover, it marks the second time in less than a year that the crypto universe, still reeling from a crash that shaved some US$2 trillion off the value of the market, loses one of its biggest stars. Bankman-Fried may have been the best known name in