Court unseals indictments against Binance and CZ, detailing expected guilty pleas
A federal court has released the indictments against Binance and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao filed under seal on Nov. 14, in which the United States government said it expected the cryptocurrency exchange and CZ to enter guilty pleas.
In Nov. 14 filings in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, the U.S. government said it requested to file the indictments against Binance and CZ under seal, as any potential plea deals with the exchange and CEO and any regulatory settlements were “likely to have a major effect on the company, its customers, and global cryptocurrency markets.” Authorities charged CZ with one felony count for failure to maintain an effective Anti-Money Laundering program at Binance, violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
“On the day of the plea hearings, the Government anticipates that the criminal resolutions with Defendant Zhao and Defendant Binance will be announced simultaneously with significant civil resolutions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC], the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network [FinCEN], and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC],” said the Nov. 14 filing, adding:
“While Binance is not a publicly traded company, Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and news related to Zhao and Binance’s criminal and civil liability is likely to have a significant effect on trading of various cryptocurrencies.”
“Cryptocurrency markets are volatile, subject to significant swings based on external events,” said the filing. “Here, given the status that Binance and Zhao have among participants in the cryptocurrency and related markets, even the simple docketing of a federal criminal case against either would by itself have a significant market impact.”
The government compared potential volatility in the price of BNB (BNB) to that of FTX Token (FTT) when the crypto exchange collapsed in November 2022 and former CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried was indicted on federal fraud charges. SBF was subsequently found guilty on seven charges and awaits sentencing in March 2024.
According to court records, lawyers representing Binance and CZ appeared in court for separate hearings scheduled on the morning of Nov. 21 to discuss pleas and possible detention. Attorneys for CZ filed sealed motions concerning the Binance CEO’s conditional release pending sentencing in the case, but the contents were not available at the time of publication.
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A settlement for many of the criminal and civil cases against Binance and CZ in the United States is expected to be announced at 8:00 pm UTC on Nov. 21 as part of a joint statement by the Justice Department, CFTC, and Department of the Treasury. According to many reports, CZ has agreed to plead guilty, and Binance will pay more than $4 billion as part of the settlement.
It’s unclear at the time of publication if any part of the announcement will concern Binance’s pending civil case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In June, the regulator filed 13 charges against the crypto exchange, Binance.US and CZ for securities law violations.
Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has pushed back against a report in The Wall Street Journal, calling it a “hit piece” filled with inaccuracies and negative assumptions.
In an X post, Zhao criticized the publication’s portrayal of his alleged involvement with World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance project backed by a business entity affiliated with US President Donald Trump. Trump’s sons — Eric and Donald Jr. —are involved in the management of the company.
Zhao said the WSJ article portrayed him as acting as a “fixer” for the WLF team and its co-founder Zach Witkoff during foreign trips.
The article suggested Zhao facilitated introductions and meetings for WLF leaders during foreign trips, including a visit to Pakistan that reportedly resulted in a memorandum of understanding with a local official.
“I am not a fixer for anyone,” Zhao said, firmly denying that he connected Pakistani official “Mr. Saqib” with WLF or organized any engagements abroad. “They had known each other way back, whereas I only met with Mr. Saqib for the first time in Pakistan.”
WSJ reports on Steve and Zach Witkoff
Zhao’s response follows a WSJ investigation highlighting a complex string of diplomatic and business interests involving WLF.
The report raised concerns about the blurred lines between public duties and private interests and focused on diplomatic and business dealings involving WLF co-founders Steve Witkoff and his son, Zach Witkoff. Steve Witkoff serves as the US Special Envoy to the Middle East under the Trump administration, while Zach Witkoff has been involved in securing a reported $2 billion crypto deal.
The report raised questions about whether diplomatic efforts overlapped with private crypto ventures, and implied Zhao may have been attempting to curry favor with the Trump administration
On May 6, Zhao confirmed that he is seeking a pardon from the Trump administration for his earlier money laundering conviction.
The report also highlighted that WLFI, which raised over $600 million in token sales, does not disclose the names of all its investors aside from some publicly known ones like Tron founder Justin Sun, who attended Trump’s memecoin dinner on May 22.
Trump hosted the dinner for the largest investors of his Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin. Sun, Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu and BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia were among attendees and shared photos of the event.
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Zhao claims the WSJ report is an “attack” on crypto
Zhao claimed the WSJ submitted a list of questions containing what he described as “wrong and negative assumptions.” He and his public relations team responded by pointing out several factual inaccuracies, he said, but concluded that the article was “built on a flawed narrative.”
Zhao slammed the WSJ, calling it a “mouthpiece” for anti-crypto forces in the United States. He said the forces behind the publication want to hinder efforts to make the US a crypto capital.
“They want to attack crypto, global crypto leaders and the pro-crypto administration,” CZ claimed, saying the article is part of a broader effort to stifle the industry’s growth in the US.
This is not the first time Zhao has clapped back at the WSJ recently. In an April 11 report, the publication cited anonymous sources alleging that Zhao agreed to testify against Tron founder Justin Sun as he settled with US prosecutors.
CZ dismissed the report, saying that people who become government witnesses don’t go to prison and are protected. CZ also claimed that someone paid WSJ employees to smear his name.
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Cetus is offering a $6 million white hat bounty in an effort to recover $220 million in stolen digital assets, while emergency responses from the Sui Network have raised concerns about decentralization.
Sui-native decentralized exchange (DEX) Cetus was exploited for over $220 million worth of cryptocurrency on May 22. However, Cetus managed to freeze $162 million of the stolen funds shortly after.
Cetus has since offered a white hat bounty of up to $6 million for the exploiter for returning the stolen 20,920 Ether (ETH), worth over $55 million, along with the rest of the stolen funds currently frozen on the Sui blockchain.
“In exchange, you can keep 2,324 ETH ($6M) as a bounty, and we will consider the matter closed and will not pursue any further legal, intelligence, or public action,” Cetus wrote in a message embedded in a blockchain transaction on May 22.
However, Cetus will “escalate with full legal and intelligence resources” if these assets are off-ramped or sent to cryptocurrency mixers and not returned promptly.
A white hat bounty is offered to ethical hackers who seek protocol vulnerabilities to prevent future exploits.
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Cryptocurrency hacks soared to $90 million across 15 incidents in April, a 124% increase from March when hackers stole $41 million worth of digital assets.
Meanwhile, the industry is still recovering from the largest crypto hack, which saw Bybit exchange lose over $1.4 billion on Feb. 21, 2025.
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SUI considers emergency white list function to override transactions
Meanwhile, GitHub activity shows the Sui team has considered implementing an emergency whitelist function that would allow certain transactions to bypass security checks, potentially to recover funds linked to the hack.
“It appears that the Sui team asked every validator to deploy patched code so they could take away @CetusProtocol hacker’s $160 million via an unsigned tx,” said Chaofan Shou, a software engineer at Solayer Labs.
However, an unnamed Sui engineer told Shou that “validators held off deploying this and currently they are only denying tx that involves hacker’s objects,” he said in a May 22 X post.
The move has sparked criticism among decentralization advocates, who argue that the ability to override transactions contradicts the principles of a decentralized permissionless network.
Despite widespread criticism in the crypto community, some saw the rapid response as a sign of progress, not centralization.
“This is what real world decentralization looks like. Not just powerless, but responsive and aligned with the community,” said pseudonymous crypto sleuth Matteo, adding that decentralization “isn’t about standing by while people get hurt, it’s about the power to act together, without needing permission.”
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Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetuals exchange operating on its own layer-1 blockchain, has submitted formal comments on 24/7 derivatives trading to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
In a May 23 X post, Hyperliquid Labs announced that it has “submitted two comment letters to the [CFTC] in response to its recent Requests for Comment on perpetual derivatives and 24/7 trading.” The team behind the decentralized exchange (DEX) added:
“We commend the CFTC for its proactive engagement on these topics, understanding of which is fundamental to the evolution of global markets.”
Hyperliquid stated that it is committed to the advancement of the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. The team also claimed that its implementation “exemplifies how core DeFi principles can be put into practice to enhance market efficiency, market integrity, and user protection.”
Related: CFTC exodus: Fourth commissioner to depart ‘later this year’
CFTC’s 24/7 derivatives plans
Hyperliquid’s remarks follow CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger recently saying that crypto perpetual futures contracts could receive regulatory approval in the US “very soon.” Perpetual crypto futures “can come to market now,” she said.
“We’re seeing some applications, and I believe we’ll see some of those products trading live very soon,” Mersinger said. She also added that it would be “great to get that trading back onshore in the United States.”
Perpetual futures contracts are a type of derivative that allows traders to speculate on the price of a crypto asset without owning it, similar to traditional futures, but with no expiration date. Such contracts remain open indefinitely and are kept in line with the spot market price using a funding rate mechanism, where payments are exchanged between long and short positions at regular intervals.
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Crypto derivatives are a busy area
The crypto derivatives market has recently been swarming with announcements of product launches, acquisitions and regulatory developments. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently said the exchange will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit.
Armstrong’s remarks followed Coinbase’s agreement to acquire Deribit, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives trading platforms. Europe is seeing just as much hustle in the crypto derivatives industry as the Americas are.
Major crypto exchange Gemini has also recently received regulatory approval to expand crypto derivatives trading across Europe. Elsewhere, DeFi platform Synthetix will also venture further into crypto derivatives, with plans to re-acquire the crypto options platform Derive.
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