Subscribe to TechCrunch's weekly newsletter, Chain Reaction, to stay up to date on the latest and most significant crypto stories. This week's news includes the US Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) suing Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao. , and Chief Compliance Officer, Samuel Lim, for allegedly violating trading and derivatives rules. The CFTC filing alleges that Binance has never registered with it in any way and has "ignored federal laws" for US financial markets, including laws that implement controls to prevent and detect money laundering and terrorist financing. Despite the regulatory measures, the cryptocurrency market appears to be unaffected as total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased slightly from $1.15 trillion to $1.18 trillion on the week.
TechCrunch also explores what Binance's CFTC lawsuit means for the big crypto industry, with some experts suggesting that the ultimate impact on Binance could send shockwaves through the global digital asset market. In other news, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of allegedly bribing Chinese officials, while there is still no clarity on the laws that crypto companies are supposed to align with. The CFTC considers some cryptocurrencies to be commodities, while another major US government agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), considers most crypto assets (other than Bitcoin) to be securities.
In other news, Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, which operates the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister token LUNA, was arrested in Montenegro last week as he tried to board a flight to flee to Dubai with forged documents. He now faces criminal charges in both the US and his native South Korea, with both countries seeking his extradition. Coinbase received a notice of Wells from the SEC last week, and company executives took to Twitter Spaces to discuss the decision and what Coinbase's next steps will be to create legal frameworks for the world of cryptocurrencies.
Lastly, follow the money with this week's funding news, including crypto wallet company Ledger raising another $108 million, web3 protocol Polytrade raising $3.8 million to improve global trading, blockchain startup Fetch. ai raising $40 million to provide monetization and other tools for AI-generated insights, Aptos-based protocol Econia Labs raised $6.5 million to build decentralized order books, and Eigen Labs closed a $50 million Series A round led by by Blockchain Capital.
