The Chopping Block: What Does Binance’s Record $4.3 Billion Settlement Mean for Crypto? - Ep. 573

Explicit content warning

11/23/23 • 62 min

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Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang breaks down the record $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. government — whether it was fair, the chances CEO Changpeng Zhao will face any jail time, whether it was ultimately a good thing for Binance and for the U.S., and what this changes for the industry going forward. They also delve into the SEC’s lawsuit against Kraken, and the drama around Sam Altman’s firing from Open AI and what it says about corporate governance and crypto companies.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

the details of the settlement between Binance and the Department of Justice
how a core part of Binance’s business model was to allow bad actors on its platform, according to Robert
why Binance had to settle with the U.S. government even though it's not an American company
why Tom believes that the settlement represents a "very bad lesson"
whether U.S. market makers should be liable in cases like these
how the crypto community has reacted to the settlement
what the settlement means for the future of the crypto industry
whether the new SEC lawsuit against Kraken is just a “copy-and-paste” of its suit against Coinbase
The drama around Sam Altman’s removal from his role as CEO of OpenAI
Why Robert thinks that the OpenAI board was “silly and dumb”
What the problems at OpenAI say about its innovative governance structure

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Disclosures Links

Binance Settlement

SEC Charges Against Kraken

Unchained: Crypto Exchange Kraken Accused by SEC of Violating Securities Law

OpenAI

The Verge: Sam Altman returns as CEO of OpenAI
Unchained: Worldcoin Falls and Rises After Sam Altman-OpenAI Saga

Haseeb’s tweet on accelerationism

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show highlights:

the details of the settlement between Binance and the Department of Justice
how a core part of Binance’s business model was to allow bad actors on its platform, according to Robert
why Binance had to settle with the U.S. government even though it's not an American company
why Tom believes that the settlement represents a "very bad lesson"
whether U.S. market makers should be liable in cases like these
how the crypto community has reacted to the settlement
what the settlement means for the future of the crypto industry
whether the new SEC lawsuit against Kraken is just a “copy-and-paste” of its suit against Coinbase
The drama around Sam Altman’s removal from his role as CEO of OpenAI
Why Robert thinks that the OpenAI board was “silly and dumb”
What the problems at OpenAI say about its innovative governance structure

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Disclosures Links

Binance Settlement

SEC Charges Against Kraken

Unchained: Crypto Exchange Kraken Accused by SEC of Violating Securities Law

OpenAI

The Verge: Sam Altman returns as CEO of OpenAI
Unchained: Worldcoin Falls and Rises After Sam Altman-OpenAI Saga

Haseeb’s tweet on accelerationism

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Why Financial Advisors Are So Excited About a Spot Bitcoin ETF - Ep. 572

According to surveys of financial advisors, only 12% are currently recommending that clients invest in Bitcoin, while 47% of advisors personally own Bitcoin and a whopping 77% say they are waiting for a spot Bitcoin ETF to become available so they can offer it to their clients.

On this episode of Unchained, Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals and author of “The Truth About Crypto,” explains how this should all lead to high demand once the first spot Bitcoin ETFs become available, although it will take some time for them to allocate. Edelman also discusses how FTX’s implosion impacted advisor perceptions of crypto, why investors have not been that excited by crypto futures ETFs, and which Bitcoin ETF issuers he believes are likely to be the big winners.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

how regulatory confusion keeps financial advisors away from recommending Bitcoin to their clients
how the collapse of FTX affected financial advisors’ interest in crypto, according to Ric
how the knowledge level of financial advisors about Bitcoin is "extraordinarily low"
why 77% of investment advisors are willing to buy a spot Bitcoin ETF
why there wasn't a huge interest from advisors after the launch of Bitcoin futures ETFs
the percentage of client portfolios that he expects they will allocate to BTC
why Ric thinks there won't be huge inflows immediately after the approval of spot BTC ETFs
how financial advisors will decide whose ETF to buy, among the 12 potential issuers
why he believes spot Ethereum ETFs have great growth potential
why he thinks tokenization might be the "next big thing" that will increase institutional activity

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Guest:

Ric Edelman, Founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals
Previous appearance on Unchained: Financial Advisors Control $5 Trillion in Investor Wealth. Are They Buying Bitcoin?

Links

Previous coverage on spot Bitcoin ETFs:

Next Episode

Sam Bankman-Fried Whisperer Tiffany Fong Spills Some Tea - Ep. 574

Tiffany Fong has had an unusual route to crypto fame. After losing most of her life savings in the Celsius bankruptcy, she began posting on YouTube about her experiences and eventually received some leaked documents, which she shared with The New York Times and on her channel. The leaks gave her some visibility, and that’s when Sam Bankman-Fried began following her on Twitter.

Fong unexpectedly managed to carve out a relationship with the one-time crypto mogul, and after he was arrested last November, she chatted often and even met with him while he was under house arrest. From there, she became known for posting details of her conversations with Bankman-Fried and documents he shared with her, and went on to attend every day of his trial in person and do videos on them.

On this episode of Unchained, Fong shares why she thinks SBF opened up to her, whether she ever had a romantic relationship with him, her unpleasant encounter with Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother at the trial, why she doesn’t really consider herself a crypto influencer, and what her plans are now that the trial is over.

Show highlights:

what Tiffany did before getting into crypto
how Tiffany lost most of her life savings in the Celsius bankruptcy and how that jumpstarted her journey into the content creation space
how she got in touch with Sam Bankman-Fried and got him to speak with her after FTX’s collapse
the conversations Tiffany had with SBF during his house arrest
Tiffany's response to the rumors about a romantic relationship with SBF
how Tiffany reacted to the DOJ reaching out to her for information before the SBF trial
why she decided to go to the courtroom every day during the SBF trial
Tiffany’s unpleasant encounter with SBF's mom, Barbara Fried
how Tiffany feels about crypto, and why she doesn’t consider herself a "crypto influencer"
what Tiffany’s career plans are now that the SBF trial is over