The shadows of the cryptowinter are once again hovering over cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Just as Bitcoin was beginning to regain some of the lost ground, doubts about Binance, the world's largest crypto asset platform, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, return uncertainty and falls to the markets.
On this occasion, the reason must be sought in the investigation that US regulators have opened on the company and its head for alleged bad practices for years. Specifically, Binance and Zhao have been accused on Monday of "numerous violations" of financial and regulatory rules in the country.
"For years, Binance knew it was violating CFTC rules, actively working both to keep money flowing and to prevent compliance," Rostin Benham, chairman of the CFTC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that regulates futures and options markets, said in a statement.
The news has deepened the falls in the price of cryptocurrencies, where Bitcoin, the most popular of the thousands that exist, returns to set the pace. The virtual currency is left more than 3% on Monday and fights to maintain the level of $ 27,000. Ethereum is also around declines of 3% and tries to save the 1,700 greenbacks, while Cardano is down more than 3.5% and stands at $ 0.34.
The accusations of the US regulator coincide with the problems that the platform has had to face in recent days. Last Friday, Binance was forced to temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of its customers citing a problem affecting spot operations, as reported through its social networks.
Hours later, Zhao himself, CEO of the company, reported that there had been a 'bug' that was expected to be resolved within a maximum period of 2 hours, adding that the "pause" in deposits and withdrawals followed standard operating procedure.
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