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Bitcoin and BNB register slight declines?
According to a previous report by #Forbes es, #Zhao and #Binance collectively hold 71% of the approximately 146 million BNB tokens in circulation.
Bitcoin and BNB record slight declines
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was released early from prison on September 27, and the price of Bitcoin BTC$58,931.73 and Binance’s BNB token BNB$537.15 have fallen slightly since the start of the trading day.
According to a previous Forbes story, Zhao owns 64% of the total BNB supply, putting the entrepreneur’s fortune at around $61 billion as of June 2024, making him the 24th richest person in the world at the time. Zhao’s vast holdings of Binance’s native coin raised concerns about the token’s centralization once the story was published.
Today, the 94 million BNB tokens held by Zhao represent approximately $57 billion in value at the time of writing, which is a significant reduction compared to June 2024 prices of over $700.
A 2024 analysis by Gray Wolf Analytics and Forbes revealed that 80 million BNB tokens were initially allocated to the original Binance team. Furthermore, the company still holds around 46 million of those tokens.
DOJ Charges and Impact of Settlement on BNB Price
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges against Binance and Zhao in 2023, alleging that the Binance founder violated the Bank Secrecy Act.
In a joint filing by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, government regulators stated:
“While Binance is not a publicly traded company, Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and news regarding Zhao and Binance’s criminal and civil liability will likely have a significant effect on trading in various cryptocurrencies.”
This statement turned out to be accurate, and on November 21, the price of BNB rose by approximately 7% in the 24 hours following news of a $4 billion settlement between Binance and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC settlement cost Binance $4.3 billion, and Zhao was fined an additional $50 million as part of the settlement. Additionally, the DOJ stipulated that Binance must have independent monitoring for the next three years and appointed Forensic Risk Alliance to oversee the company’s business operations.
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