Last week, the legal drama featuring the world’s largest crypto exchange and United States law enforcement ended with a plea deal. Binance and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao have admitted violating U.S. Anti-Money Laundering laws, agreeing to pay $4.3 billion in fines. CZ resigned as CEO of Binance as part of the deal. Binance’s former head of regional markets outside the U.S., Richard Teng, is the new CEO.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson reflected on the plea deal news, calling it “the end of an era.” In Hoskinson’s opinion, entrepreneurs must comply with regulations or develop permissionless protocols that can’t be regulated. Hoskinson warned that the world is changing and that entrepreneurs will no longer be able to get by using centralized systems while simultaneously not complying with regulations. This is because “the United States has a financial regime that basically has been weaponized,” and this regime will not allow entrepreneurs to open up markets that let “the enemies of America to basically trade and do things.”