Setting new standards for crypto exchanges in the post-FTX era: Report
The year 2022 saw a historic breakdown of trust in exchanges and other crypto service providers. The collapses of Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alex Mashinsky’s Celsius are still fresh in the community’s memory, with SBF’s criminal trial only recently concluding. These cases serve as a painful reminder that fraud and bad business practices can happen in corporations of any size and that crypto, as a nascent industry, is especially susceptible. A sleek website, high trading volume or primetime television ads are no guarantee that a customer’s savings will be safe.
To advance the industry, it is imperative to set new standards for centralized third-party service providers in crypto. To this end, a new report from Cointelegraph Research surveyed nine major crypto exchanges — Binance, Bit2Me, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Bybit, Coinbase, HTX, Kraken and OKX — and compared them with a particular focus on consumer and funds protection.
Download a PDF of the Report for free from the Cointelegraph Research Terminal.
Looking into the facts
The report analyzed whether companies are located in a tax haven or a pro-customer jurisdiction, the transparency of their corporate finances, and how they ensure the user’s assets are secure and well-handled. These considerations are especially relevant for risk-averse individuals and businesses — those willing to compromise on fees and trading volume to ensure that the funds they hold on an exchange have all possible protections.
Some jurisdictions — often those notorious for being tax havens — offer companies leeway to do less for consumer protection and regulatory compliance. This ranges from the safekeeping of personal data to responsible risk disclosure. All other things being equal, it can sometimes be a red flag if an exchange seeks out a less regulated environment. The map below presents how safe the customer is in some of the most popular jurisdictions among centralized exchanges.
Based on the analysis, Bit2Me and Kraken stand out in all the categories examined. They are both headquartered in jurisdictions with strong customer protection regulations and have credible third-party proof-of-reserve audits and payment infrastructure. Besides, they provide extensive risk disclosure to their consumers through their interfaces.
Download a PDF of the full Report for free from the Cointelegraph Research Terminal.
To achieve true mass adoption, crypto needs to be brought into regulatory frameworks. This doesn’t mean giving up on the principles of decentralization and privacy but instead finding a balance where these principles can coexist with legal and financial safeguards.
Regulatory clarity and compliance, especially those directed to protect customers, would increase trust among potential users and open opportunities for institutional investors and businesses to enter the crypto space. The crypto community should strive to create an ecosystem where the benefits of crypto are accessible to everyone while minimizing the risks of fraud, money laundering and bad business practices that might put personal cryptocurrency savings in jeopardy.
The opinions expressed in this article are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product.
Cointelegraph does not endorse the content of this article nor any product mentioned herein. Readers should do their own research before taking any action related to any product or company mentioned and carry full responsibility for their decisions.
Stablecoins are the single best tool for the United States government to maintain the US dollar’s hegemony in global financial markets, according to LayerZero Labs CEO and founder Bryan Pellegrino.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, the CEO of LayerZero Labs, which created the LayerZero interoperability protocol recently chosen by Wyoming to be the distribution partner for the Wyoming stablecoin, said that the cross-border accessibility of dollar-pegged tokens makes them an obvious choice to drive US dollar demand. Pellegrino added:
“Stablecoins for the US dollar are the single best tool — the last Trojan Horse or vampire attack on every single other currency in the world — whether it is Argentina, whether it is Venezuela, whether it is all of the countries that have massive inflation.”
The CEO said he expects support for stablecoins on both the federal and state levels to grow because of the obvious boost stablecoins give to the US dollar in foreign exchange markets and the financial moat stablecoin-driven demand will create around the US dollar’s global reserve currency status.
Stablecoin market overview. Source: RWA.XYZ
Related: Certain stablecoins aren’t securities, SEC says in new guidance
US government looks to stablecoins to protect US dollar
Pellegrino cited Tether’s emerging role as one of the largest buyers of US Treasury bills in the world as evidence of the demand for US debt instruments from stablecoin issuers.
Tether recently became the seventh-largest holder of US Treasuries, beating out Canada, Germany, Norway, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at the White House Crypto Summit on March 7, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would leverage stablecoins to extend US dollar hegemony and indicated this would be a top priority for officials in 2025.
According to a 2023 report from Chainalysis, over 50% of all the digital asset value transferred to countries in the Latin American region, including Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, and Venezuela was denominated in stablecoins.
The low transaction fees, relative stability, and near-instant settlement times for dollar-pegged stablecoins make these real-world tokenized assets ideal for remittances and stores of value for residents in developing countries suffering from high inflation and capital controls.
Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will likely see a reduced role in crypto regulations as other federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state-level regulators assume a bigger role in crypto policy, according to Ethan Ostroff, partner at the Troutman Pepper Locke law firm.
“I think with the current administration, my sense is, we are highly likely to see a significant pullback by the CFPB in the context of the activity by other regulators,” Ostroff told Cointelegraph in an interview.
State regulators also have the authority under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) to assume some of the regulatory roles of the CFPB, the attorney said but also added that some regulatory functions will continue to fall within the purview of the CFPB as a matter of established law.
Ostroff cited the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) as regulators to keep an eye on as potential leaders of crypto regulations at the state level.
However, the attorney clarified that while the CFPB may see a diminished role during the Trump administration, the agency would not be outright dismantled during the current regime due to “statutorily mandated obligations and requirements” that require acts of Congress to change.
Related: Elon Musk’s ‘government efficiency’ team turns its sights to SEC — Report
Trump administration targets CFPB in efficiency push
The Trump administration targeted the CFPB as part of a broader push by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash government spending and reduce the federal debt.
Russell Vought, the recently appointed head of the CFPB, announced major funding cuts to the agency and scaled back operations within days of assuming the helm at the CFPB in February 2025.
Source: Russell Vought
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Elon Musk for dismantling the CFPB, which the US senator co-founded back in 2007.
Warren characterized Musk as a “bank robber” and claimed that the Trump administration dismantled the CFPB to undo consumer protection rules and have greater control over the financial system.
In a February 12 interview with Mother Jones, the senator stressed that the Executive Branch of government does not have the statutory authority to fully dismantle the CFPB, which can only be done through Congressional approval.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
Nearly 400,000 creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX risk missing out on $2.5 billion in repayments after failing to begin the mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.
Roughly 392,000 FTX creditors have failed to complete or at least take the first steps of the mandatory Know Your Customer verification, according to an April 2 court filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
FTX users originally had until March 3 to begin the verification process to collect their claims.
“If a holder of a claim listed on Schedule 1 attached thereto did not commence the KYC submission process with respect to such claim on or prior to March 3, 2025, at 4:00 pm (ET) (the “KYC Commencing Deadline”), 2 such claim shall be disallowed and expunged in its entirety,” the filing states.
FTX court filing. Source: Bloomberglaw.com
The KYC deadline has been extended to June 1, 2025, giving users another chance to verify their identity and claim eligibility. Those who fail to meet the new deadline may have their claims permanently disqualified.
According to the court documents, claims under $50,000 could account for roughly $655 million in disallowed repayments, while claims over $50,000 could amount to $1.9 billion — bringing the total at-risk funds to more than $2.5 billion.
FTX court filing, estimated claims. Source: Sunil
The next round of FTX creditor repayments is set for May 30, 2025, with over $11 billion expected to be repaid to creditors with claims of over $50,000.
Under FTX’s recovery plan, 98% of creditors are expected to receive at least 118% of their original claim value in cash.
Related: FTX liquidated $1.5B in 3AC assets 2 weeks before hedge fund’s collapse
How FTX users can complete KYC
Many FTX users have reported problems with the KYC process.
However, users who were unable to submit their KYC documentation can resubmit their application and restart the verification process, according to an April 5 X post from Sunil, FTX creditor and Customer Ad-Hoc Committee member.
FTX KYC portal. Source: Sunil
Impacted users should email FTX support (support@ftx.com) to receive a ticket number, then log in to the support portal, create an account, and re-upload the necessary KYC documents.
Related: Crypto trader turns $2K PEPE into $43M, sells for $10M profit
FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, processed the first round of repayments in February, distributing $1.2 billion to creditors.
The crypto industry is still recovering from the collapse of FTX and more than 130 subsidiaries launched a series of insolvencies that led to the industry’s longest-ever crypto winter, which saw Bitcoin’s (BTC) price bottom out at around $16,000.
While not a “market-moving catalyst” in itself, the beginning of the FTX repayments is a positive sign for the maturation of the crypto industry, which may see a “significant portion” reinvested into cryptocurrencies, Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph.
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