Bjorn Solstad, CEO of Devenia, a digital marketing firm, recently commented on Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the co-founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. In an April 15 post, Solstad said that CZ is "among the most important drivers of innovation in the crypto space."
"CZ is among the most important drivers of innovation in the crypto space together with Hal Finney and Satoshi," said Solstad, according to X. "I sincerely hope you enjoy your next chapter driving innovation in the education sector."
CZ, a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur, founded Binance in 2017, as stated in a post on the company's website. Initially conceived as a cryptocurrency-to-cryptocurrency exchange, Binance has since broadened its services to include peer-to-peer lending and other financial offerings. The platform's rapid processing times and minimal fees have fueled its rise in popularity. As a result, Binance now records daily trading volumes amounting to billions of dollars.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, CZ resigned from his position as Binance CEO in November when Binance resolved historical compliance issues with the U.S. government. As part of this resolution, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties and permit third-party monitoring of its transactions and accounts. Furthermore, CZ conceded to plead guilty for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program as part of the settlement.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, a crypto derivatives exchange, expressed his views on the penalties imposed on CZ and Binance in a Substack post. He described them as disproportionate to their errors. Hayes portrayed CZ as an entrepreneur who established the world's largest crypto exchange and expanded financial inclusion but was subsequently penalized by an outdated legal system. He termed the punishments faced by Binance and CZ as "strange" considering that executives from major institutions like Goldman Sachs received less severe penalties for their transgressions.
In conversation with Federal Newswire, Christian Catalini, founder of MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab pointed out that the current lack of regulatory clarity for crypto companies in the U.S. is driving entrepreneurs out of the country. He urged the U.S. government to "provide greater regulatory clarity for the entrepreneurs and startups building in this space. Right now, the lack of regulatory clarity is pushing teams abroad."
According to his about.me profile, Solstad is a web developer and serves as CEO of Devenia, a UK-based company specializing in internet and social media marketing and search engine optimization. Solstad also maintains a blog in Norwegian.
