巴哈马 · 493

After regulatory arbitrage is over, how can leading exchanges compete for the “gold content” of license licenses?

Author: Chloe, ChainCatcher Original title: The era of regulatory arbitrage has come to an end. Over the past ten years, crypto exchange licenses have competed for money. The expansion logic of cryptocurrency exchanges has been “buy users first, then talk about compliance”. However, this logic was completely reversed in 2026, and now, what can really close the gap is the compliance dividend brought by the license. When the era of regulatory arbitrage comes to an end, how can Binance, OKX, Bitget, Bybit, and Gate use very different strategies to compete for entry into the next round of patterns? 2026 A new battleground between exchanges: Compliance dividends According to the annual derivatives market report released by CoinGlass in 2025, the total trading volume of derivatives on centralized exchanges reached US$85.7 trillion throughout the year, averaging about US$264.5 billion per day, and the market share is highly concentrated. The share of open positions on the top five exchanges exceeds 80%. With such a market size, if any leading exchange wants to continue to grow, it is no longer possible to differentiate by simply “lower fees” or “more currencies” because the marginal utility of these advantages is shrinking. The market position and current ranking of the five exchanges. Before entering the license inventory, use data to see the relative positions of these five exchanges in 2026. According to the TokenInsight 2025 report, the annual spot market share distribution is as follows: Binance 42.09%, Bybit 8.63%, MEXC 8.49%, Gate 8.16%, Bitget 6.86%, OKX 6.83%, Coinbase 6.58%, and KuCoin 4.31% derivatives market patterns are slightly different. Data shows that in 2025, Binance ranked first with an average market share of 34.74%, OKX ranked second with 15.06%, Bybit ranked third with 12.95%, Bitget ranked fourth with 11.27%, and MEXC and Gate were 10.58% and 8.25%, respectively. These two sets of data show that apart from Binance's absolute advantage in the spot and derivatives markets, the shares of the other four companies are actually tied together. As the size of the market expands and share distribution stabilizes, anyone who can get a license for a key market will have a chance to jump one step higher in the next round of reshuffle. Notably, these five leading exchanges also maintain leading positions in terms of compliance transparency. According to the crypto asset data platform RootData, Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate, and Bitget continued to rank in the top five in the 8th “Cryptocurrency Exchange Transparency List (Stock Category)” published by the Web3 asset data platform RootData, which is highly consistent with the pattern of spot and derivatives market share. The list continues to focus on the growing trend of stock assets on crypto exchanges. Binance: The absolute leader in compliance turned to Binance is the only player on this list who doesn't need to worry about market share, but it is the one that is under the most regulatory pressure. Between 2023 and 2024, Binance faced a series of major regulatory fines and settlements in the US and many countries, which fundamentally changed the company's strategy. According to Nikkei Asia, Binance Asia Pacific Head SB Seker said in March 2026 that Binance plans to obtain five new licenses in Asia within 2026, boosting the number of licensed jurisdictions worldwide to more than 20. As of the beginning of 2026, Binance already holds regulatory approvals from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, and Thailand in Asia. Through the acquisition of a controlling interest in South Korea's Gopax, the Korean license will soon enter the market. Binance's global scale itself is creating a compliance narrative. According to Binance's 2025 report, Binance Global has more than 300 million registered users, and spot trading volume for the full year of 2025 exceeds $7.1 trillion. At this level, Binance was banned in any single country, affecting not only local users, but also the entire OTC market and stablecoin liquidity. Among them, Binance's licensing strategy is not the same as other exchanges. In many markets, it obtains a license by acquiring a local licensed entity (such as Gopax) rather than applying from scratch. This approach can shorten the time period, but it also means that Binance must take on the historical burden of the acquired party. Binance's 2025 compliance narrative data will be directly updated in its compliance update report, direct and indirect funding related to sanctions...

86d agoburnking#license plate #custodial

From the wild path to the table: Why compliance is the way to go

Article: Grandpa Zao Original title: Compliance is the quintessential gift of the underground economy. Binance quickly became number one in the world through regulatory arbitrage in 2017, but the freer Hyperliquid only occupied 15% of Binance's share in 2025, and does RWA, as the source of DeFi's underlying asset, have room and scale for regulatory arbitrage? Compliance became the main theme in 2026. The offshore company Binance officially went to ADGM in the UAE, Coinbase joined the Genius Act and the Clear Act, and even the Eastern Powers tested the waters of RWA regulation “in principle”. We are at a clear inflection point. Blockchain will not replace the Internet. Web3 is just a self-righteous scam. The coin listing effect ended when Binance bought Bitcoin, but Hyperliquid is gaining strength in the precious metals and prediction markets, and it is right time for RWA represented by coins (stablecoins), stocks (US stocks), bonds (US bonds, subordinated bonds), and foundations (hedging, active) to go online. In this context, compliance transcends the simple ceremonial role of “holding a small national card and seizing big national interests” and evolves into a real framework for the separation of transactions, clearing, and escrow. When the industry breaks through scale limits, regulatory benefits will be profitable. In silence, compliance not only means the end of the last wild era. There is always room for arbitrage on racetracks to evolve and change in scale. Start with the exchange and get a glimpse into economic considerations other than compliance. Civilized Wall Street, crazy barbarians and barbaric conquerors, according to an eternal rule of history, were themselves conquered by the higher civilizations of the subjects they conquered. In 2022, FTX collapsed in a dramatic manner, and Wall Street also developed the idea of seizing the exchange circuit. Citadel Securities, Fidelity, and Carson collaborated to launch EDX Markets in Singapore, which operates under the Singapore MAS compliance framework in accordance with the principle of separation of trading and escrow. As Gary Gensler's SEC oversaw Binance, Coinbase and Kraken were unable to enter high-end markets such as contracts and options. At the time, the market also had high expectations for EDX Markets. If there were no surprises, we should witness the fall of Binance, just like BitMEX after March 12, 2020, but history never repeats itself. Hyperliquid is the real winner. The deteriorating Binance market and the one that continues to shrink the US market Coinbase isn't even the main character in the next scene. To know the experiences of those who have succeeded, we must understand the lessons of those who have lost. Since it was founded in 2017, Binance has done at least two things right: while actively embracing overseas users, it continues to accept users from mainland China, where transaction volume and user size are mutually seesaw; and launched IEO (initial exchange offering) in 2019, creating a real wealth effect before DeFi Summer. After the 9.4 ban, the provision of trading services to mainland Chinese users was in a “grey area”. The third one was set up directly for trading platforms, requiring them not to provide services such as quotation, matchmaking, and settlement. If you refer to any response to Sister Mu Tou, then Binance will respond by “not providing services to mainland Chinese users.” From 2017 to 2019, Binance became the number one offshore market in the world. From 2020 to 2022, Binance filled the contract market after BitMEX. From 2022 to 2024, Binance dominated the global altcoin market, and the coin listing effect was equivalent to the Binance effect. After entering 2025, Binance officially assumed the ADGM compliance framework in Abu Dhabi, UAE, dividing itself into three entities: trading, clearing, and OTC, but this still retains Binance's characteristic arbitrage. In particular, compliance has not prevented Binance from listing meme coins. Secondly, ADGM and the entire UAE financial system have no ability to monitor such a giant as Binance at all. You can take a look at the Bahamas' inability to do anything about FTX's global website. Photo caption: Only “Kao Gong” can go ashore. Image source: @binance @okxCoinbase was most compliant after the FTX crash, but this compliance stemmed from Trump's continued transformation of the SEC, CFTC, and OCC after coming to power, requiring it to adopt more crypto-friendly regulatory measures. Generally, the SEC is responsible for reviewing whether a token meets the definition of a security. The CFTC is responsible for derivatives trading, the OCC is responsible for banking licenses to carry out escrow business, and the US has no ADGM “...

194d agoLuxurytracy

Being on the cover of Forbes, why did it become a market curse for crypto giants?

Author: Curry, Shenchao TechFlow Original title: Forbes Editorial Office, the most accurate shorting signal in the coin industry? Bitcoin once reached $60,000 in the past two days, and it also recorded the biggest one-day decline since the FTX explosion. Michael Saylor's company Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) holds 713,000 bitcoins at an average price of $76052. As of last night, there was a loss of 6.5 billion dollars. The stock price fell from a high of $457 last year to $110, and more than three-quarters has evaporated. However, a year ago, Saylor was on the cover of the famous magazine Forbes. The headline reads: The Bitcoin Alchemist, Bitcoin Alchemist. Bitcoin was worth $104,000 at the time, and Saylor's net worth was 9.4 billion. Now, a picture is circulating on Twitter, with the covers of the three Forbes issues arranged together, with Bitcoin's K line superimposed on the bottom. However, every cover was accurately printed at the starting point of a round of sharp decline. And these three people, one has been to jail, one is in jail, and the third just lost 6.5 billion dollars. On the cover, CZ was the first cryptographer to be on the cover of Forbes when it was full of popularity. In February 2018, Forbes made the cover of an issue called “Crypto's Secret Billionaire Club”. CZ stood right in the middle, pull-on his sweater, and looked flirty. The small print on the cover says: From zero to billionaire, it only took 6 months. At that time, Bitcoin had just dropped from close to $20,000 at the end of 2017, and the price was around $7,600. Forbes estimates that CZ has a minimum net worth of $1.1 billion. Binance has only been online for half a year and is already the largest exchange in the world by trading volume. After the cover came out, Bitcoin briefly rebounded to $10,000. And then there was no afterward. By December 2018, Bitcoin had dropped to $3156. From the day the cover was released, the drop: 58%. Everyone knows the story of CZ later. On the Forbes 2025 Global Billionaires List, CZ has a net worth of $62.9 billion and is number one in the crypto industry. But he's not on the cover anymore. The second Forbes cover was Sam Bankman-Fried. In October 2021, Forbes released the 40th Forbes 400 Rich List, with SBF as the cover character. Under 30, he has a net worth of $265 billion and is the 41st richest person in the US. On the cover, he was wearing that iconic grey t-shirt with curly hair, and looked like a college student who had just played League of Legends all night long. The tone of that issue of the magazine is very magical when I look back at it now. Forbes called him “the most powerful person in the crypto industry,” saying that he is a combination of Wall Street and Silicon Valley while building an exchange and donating money to charity. When the cover was released, Bitcoin was around $60,000, just one step away from its all-time high of 69,000 at the time. FTX exploded 13 months later. SBF misappropriated over $8 billion in client funds to fill a hole in his other company, Alameda Research. In November 2022, users concentrated on withdrawals, FTX was unable to pay, and within a week it went from being the third-largest exchange in the world to a bankrupt company. Bitcoin went straight from $20,000 to $1.6K. Finally, SBF was arrested in a luxury apartment in the Bahamas. He was convicted on all seven counts, and the sentence was 25 years. Forbes later made a special “30 Under 30 Hall of Shame,” and SBF was definitely on the list. From cover to handcuffs: 13 months. The third one is Michael Saylor. January 30, 2025, Forbes cover, titled “The Bitcoin Alchemist.” Shortly after Bitcoin broke through $100,000, Saylor's net worth rose 5 times faster from 1.9 billion the previous year to 9.4 billion. Shares of his company, MicroStrategy, have risen 700% in a year and have just been included in the Nasdaq 100 index. The Forbes article recorded a detail: On New Year's Eve, Saylor hosted a 500-person event at her manor in Miami...

197d agoburnking#FTX #Saylor #SBF #Strategy #Sun Yuchen #Bitcoin #Forbes #Zhao Changpeng

Forbes Interview with Gate Founder Dr. Han: Building the Long-Term Competitiveness of Crypto Platforms with Transparency and Compliance

Comparatively, according to a special report recently published by “Forbes” (Forbes), Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han systematically reviewed its entrepreneurial history in an exclusive interview and thoroughly explained Gate's development philosophy centered on safety, transparency, and long-term principles. The report pointed out that Gate was one of the first trading platforms in the industry to introduce and continue to disclose reserve certificates. Through a higher-standard asset security mechanism and perfect risk control system, Gate has gradually established a foundation of trust for nearly 50 million users. At the compliance level, Gate responds positively to global regulatory frameworks, including MiCA, and several of its entities have obtained or completed relevant regulatory registrations, license applications, authorizations, or approvals in jurisdictions such as Malta, the Bahamas, Australia, and Dubai. Dr. Han said that the crypto industry is entering a critical regulatory cycle, and a platform that is truly competitive for a long time must stand the double test of the market and regulation at the same time. Gate is also continuing to lower the threshold for users to enter the digital asset and tokenized finance world through an integrated layout of trading, escrow, settlement and compliance capabilities, and push the industry to evolve in a more steady and sustainable direction.

206d ago

A US court sentenced the main offender in a Chinese cryptocurrency money laundering case to nearly 4 years in prison, involving nearly 37 million US dollars

According to the US Department of Justice announcement, Jingliang Su, a 45-year-old Chinese citizen, was sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison and ordered to pay more than 26 million US dollars in compensation for participating in a multinational cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering network. The criminal gang lured 174 victims in the US through counterfeit trading platforms and transferred 36.9 million US dollars of funds to Cambodia after converting them to USDT through Bahamian bank accounts. Eight people involved in this case have pleaded guilty. Among them, California resident Shengsheng He was previously sentenced to over 4 years.

206d agoWendy

Gate Founder Dr. Han Named Entrepreneur Middle East's “The 100” 2025 List

According to the recent announcement by Entrepreneur Middle East, Dr. Han, founder and CEO of Gate, was selected for the “The 100” 2025 list specially planned by the media, and was recognized by authoritative commercial media for his continued influence in driving regional business development and innovation in the digital asset industry. This selection also further highlights Gate and its leadership team's influence on the industry from a mainstream global business perspective. The “The 100” list was planned and selected by Entrepreneur Middle East over a period of one year, focusing on individuals, pioneers and industry leaders who have had a long-term impact on the development of the industry in the fields of business, technology and innovation in the region. Dr. Han's selection not only reflects his forward-looking judgment and long-term practice in the field of digital assets and Web3, but also reflects Gate's comprehensive strength in continuing to promote specialization, product innovation, and internationalization in the global crypto industry. As the founder of Gate, Dr. Han has long been committed to promoting the improvement of the crypto trading infrastructure and standardized development of the industry. Up to now, multiple Gate Group entities have obtained or completed relevant regulatory registrations, license applications, authorizations or approvals in jurisdictions such as Malta, the Bahamas, Japan, Australia, the United States, and Dubai, and continue to establish a compliant and stable global operating system.

242d ago

UAE's “digital dirham” CBDC completes first government-level deal, testing took less than two minutes

In comparison, the UAE Ministry of Finance and the Dubai Finance Authority announced that they have completed the first transaction in the Digital Dirham (Digital Dirham) central bank's digital currency pilot phase. This is the first major development since the project was launched in March of this year. The transaction was executed through mBridge, a government payment platform, and marks a key step in the UAE's application of the national digital currency to government and private sector operations. Ahmed Ali Meftah, executive director of the Dubai Finance Authority, said the deal was aimed at testing the technical integration and operational readiness of the central bank system. The entire process took less than two minutes, verifying the potential of digital dirhams in improving settlement efficiency and shortening the intergovernmental payment cycle. According to a policy document issued by the UAE Central Bank in July, the issuance of digital dirhams will be phased out, initially for payment purposes only, to avoid competition with savings or interest-bearing products. The project is seen as an important step by the UAE central bank to cope with the evolution of the monetary system in the digital economy era. According to the Atlantic Council (Atlantic Council) statistics, currently only Nigeria, the Bahamas, and Jamaica are officially issuing CBDCs in the world, and 49 other countries are in the pilot phase.

283d ago

Brazil's central bank will discuss Bitcoin reserves in Rio de Janeiro

According to the news, the Central Bank of Brazil will send six representatives to participate in the “Central Bank Autumn Meeting” scheduled to be held in Rio de Janeiro from November 19 to 21, 2025. The conference topics included growing trends in cryptocurrency and bitcoin reserves by central banks. Ricardo Martinelli, representative of the Central Bank of Brazil's international reserves department, will discuss “Investment Perspectives: How Reserve Managers Can Respond to Geoeconomics and Portfolio Strategies” with colleagues from Colombia, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Guatemala. At the same time, the conference will also discuss the development of central bank digital currency (CBDC), and Brazil's ongoing Drex digital currency project will also be the focus. Bank of Brazil Executive Secretary Rogério Lucca will share his views in the “Future of Money: Innovation, Interoperability, and Partnerships” panel discussion to explore the possibility of coexistence between CBDCs and stablecoins.

296d ago

Behind Tether's $500 billion valuation, a group of low-key players are creating the biggest wealth in crypto history

Author: David | Shenchao TechFlow Original title: Behind Tether's 500 billion valuation, the hidden wealth past of shareholders On September 24, 2025, according to a Bloomberg report, Tether Holdings (Tether Holdings), the world's largest stablecoin issuer, is negotiating a new round of financing with investors and plans to sell 3% of its shares to raise US$150-20 billion. At the upper limit, the deal would value Tether at around $500 billion, making it one of the world's most valuable private companies. What is the concept of a $500 billion valuation? For comparison, OpenAI was valued at around $300 billion in March this year, while SpaceX was worth about $450 billion. Tether's $500 billion target valuation even surpasses the combined market capitalization of the two top Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Blackstone's $148 billion. But what's really remarkable is not the company's valuation itself, but the people behind this number. The actual controllers who directly or indirectly hold Tether shares could become the richest people in the cryptocurrency industry's history if the deal is reached. As a private company registered in the British Virgin Islands, Tether has never voluntarily disclosed its shareholding structure. The company, which controls $170 billion in USDT circulation and almost has a monopoly on the global cryptocurrency trading infrastructure, has always kept the actual controller behind the scenes. Until 2021, investigation documents from the New York State Attorney General's Office and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) unexpectedly revealed some equity information; in 2024, well-known US media Forbes further added to this puzzle through multiple sources. Based on this fragmented yet relatively reliable information, we were finally able to outline the wealth map behind Tether. At a valuation of $500 billion, Tether's largest shareholder, a 61-year-old Italian, will have a fortune of over $200 billion, surpassing Buffett to become the fifth richest person in the world. Meanwhile, several other core shareholders will also join the 100 billion or 10 billion dollar millionaire club, respectively. These long-hidden super-rich people finally have specific names and faces. Among them are former plastic surgeons, programmers who write code until the early hours of the morning, Dutch people studying Chinese in Taiwan, and even Chinese businessmen who are serving a prison sentence. Behind every person, there is an unknown history of wealth accumulation. Chairman: From plastic surgeon to the world's top five richest man Giancarlo Devasini Current position: Chairman of Tether, CFO Shareholding: 47% Potential value: US$235 billion (fifth richest person in the world) Giancarlo Devasini is probably the most mysterious supermillionaire in the crypto world. The 61-year-old Italian has very few appearances, no social media, and few public photos, yet he controls 47% of Tether's shares. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, if the $500 billion valuation comes true, he will surpass Buffett as the fifth richest person in the world, after Musk, Ellison (Oracle), Zuckerberg, and Bezos. However, compared to the stable value of wealth, Devasini's life trajectory seems even more detached. In 1990, Giancarlo Devasini graduated from Milan University Medical School as an orthopedic surgeon. After two years, he gave up this stable and decent job that outsiders viewed as stable and decent. After leaving the hospital, Devasini entered the IT trade field, importing computer accessories, selling electronic products, and doing what to make money. In 1995, he was asked by Microsoft to pay a settlement of 1 million lira for selling pirated software. In 2008, a fire destroyed his warehouse and the company went bankrupt. Devasini was 44 years old at the time and went back to almost nothing. But it was this bankruptcy that propelled him into the crypto world. In 2012, he invested in the then obscure Bitfinex exchange and gradually took over operations. At the time, the crypto market was as volatile as it is now. Devasini was also keenly aware of the problem: prices such as BTC fluctuate too much to be used as a means of payment. In 2014, Devasini and Tech...

326d agoburnking#Tether

California man jailed for 51 months in $37 million crypto scam

In comparison, the US Department of Justice announced that a California resident of La Pont was sentenced to 51 months in prison and required $26.9 million in compensation for participating in a global crypto scam that laundered $37 million. They and their accomplices used the Bahamian company Axis Digital to receive funds, transfer the victim's funds to a Deltte Bank account, and then exchange them for USDT and transfer them to the scam wallet. The case is part of the Department of Justice's ongoing crackdown on a multinational “pig-killing” crypto fraud and money laundering network. (Decrypt)

347d ago