Binance CEO Sees Crypto Thriving Off Renewed Government Attention

Trump tweeting that he is not a fan of crypto assets could be a good thing for the global cryptocurrency industry, according to Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, chief executive of popular cryptocurrency exchanges Binance. Zhao’s comments were captured in an interview with news outlet CNBC earlier this week. In the wake of relentless attacks from Washington on the crypto industry and rumors of imminent strict regulations, the exchange boss reiterated his belief that it could backfire. In the interview, he pointed out that while the President did tweet that he was not a fan, he didn’t particularly do anything to harm the industry.

On the other hand, the free publicity would definitely help crypto assets for sure. “Trump so far has not done anything positive or negative, he’s just said he’s not a fan. The fact that he tweeted about it, and the President of the United States is talking about cryptocurrency, it’s a good thing.”

Zhao went as far as asserting that an outright ban on cryptocurrencies by the government won’t do much to affect the prevalence of the assets, claiming that such a move will do nothing but increase the appetite of the people towards the asset class.

He said, “Cryptocurrency will survive regardless of any one country. Most countries that try to ban Bitcoin cause their citizens to want cryptocurrency more.”
Addressing the issues of transparency and security, Zhao cast his mind back to the hack of his exchange back in May, in which about $42 million at the time was stolen due to a security breach.

He alluded that while the hack was terrible news, the exchange’s method of addressing it- which, for all intended purposes, is the same way that other exchanges, Bitcoin wallets, and asset custodians address hacks- sows that the cryptocurrency industry actually does have more transparency than its traditional financial counterpart.

“Banks get hacked, but they’re not transparent with the numbers. You see billions of dollars in fines for banks. Whereas with cryptocurrency there’s more transparency, which is actually good for the users because now they know what’s going on.”

Zhao’s views on the hoopla surrounding Trump’s tweets about crypto were quite similar to those of Barry Silbert, chief executive of the Digital Currency Group. In the wake of a press conference convened by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on the President’s attacks, Silbert took to his Twitter account to claim that the government’s views on cryptocurrencies were a “complete and total validation of Bitcoin.”

https://twitter.com/barrysilbert/status/1150831213696999425

As for the prospect of an outright ban, it doesn’t look like Washington will be able to impose one as explained on Twitter by popular trader and economist Alex Krueger. Dissecting the possibility of a ban, Krueger pointed out several provisions in the constitution which show that Bitcoin’s inherent nature means that the government can’t actually ban it.

However, a ban could also have some theoretical success, as entry and exit pointe for investors of all kinds- exchanges, Bitcoin trading platforms, crypto hedge funds, etc.- could be banned from operating within the United States. Summarizing, Krueger said, “Trump could also go after fiat onramps, by simply forbidding banks to service crypto exchanges, or by requiring banks to not service exchanges unless conditions XYZ are fulfilled (and make that practically impossible).”