Complaint

Jane Street, Tower Research and Radix are Binance’s ‘VIP’ clients in CFTC suit: Report

The firms were cited anonymously in the CFTC’s complaint describing Binance’s alleged facilitation of U.S. clients.

Trading firms Jane Street Group, Tower Research Capital and Radix Trading have been reportedly identified as Binance’s three “VIP” clients that were anonymously cited in the recent lawsuit filed against Binance by the United States commodities regulator.

According to an April 5 Bloomberg report citing “people familiar with the matter,” Radix Trading is “Trading Firm A” as described in the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) suit, while Jane Street was “Trading Firm B” and Tower Research was “Trading Firm C.”

The firms on the CFTC’s list were examples of U.S. clients allegedly able to access Binance.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) first reported on March 28 that Radix Trading was “Trading Firm A.”

Radix co-founder Benjamin Blander told the WSJ in a March 30 report that he believed the firm acted legally even when trading with Binance’s offshore entity.

The claimed “VIP” treatment from Binance included lower transaction fees and faster trading services, the CFTC said in the filing. The firms provided Binance with liquidity on the exchange, and Binance gained the corresponding trading fee revenues.

It was part of a strategy that “actively facilitated violations of U.S. law” by helping U.S. trading firms evade Know Your Customer compliance standards, among other things, the CFTC alleged.

Binance allegedly enabled Radix to sidestep compliance controls by providing them information on accessing Binance.com through a virtual private network to obscure its IP address.

Related: Dubai regulator demands Binance provide info on ownership, governance: Report

The CFTC claimed the trading violations to have come about as Binance prioritized “commercial success over compliance with U.S. law.”

However, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao vehemently denied the claims of compliance and market manipulation violations in a follow-up post on March 28.

Magazine: US enforcement agencies are turning up the heat on crypto-related crime

Argo Blockchain accused of misleading investors in class-action lawsuit

After a torrid 2022 that saw it sell off its flagship mining facility, Argo Blockchain’s woes are worsening after a recent class-action suit.

Investors of crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain have filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the miner of making untrue statements and omitting key information during its initial public offering (IPO) in 2021.

A newly filed lawsuit on Jan. 26 is aimed at Argo and several of its executives and board members. It claims the firm failed to disclose how susceptible it was to capital constraints, electricity costs and network difficulties.

“The offering documents were negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading,” the lawsuit read.

As a result, the investors claim the business was “less sustainable” than they had been led to believe, which led to an overstatement of the miner’s financial prospects. The complaint noted:

“Had [the investors] known the truth, they would not have purchased or otherwise acquired said securities, or would not have purchased or otherwise acquired them at the inflated prices that were paid.”

Argo released the information in question on Sep. 23, 2021, when the firm filed documents with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to its IPO.

7.5 million shares were issued to the public on the same date at an offering price of $15, resulting in proceeds of $105 million before expenses.

Since then, the miner’s share price has taken a beating and is currently trading at $1.96 per share after falling as low as $0.36.

The share price decline of Argo Blockchain from Sep. 2021 to present. Source: Yahoo Finance

Cointelegraph requested comment from Argo but did not immediately receive a response.

Related: Bitcoin hash rate taps new milestone with miner hodling at 1-year low

The recent lawsuit comes just days after Argo regained compliance with Nasdaq’s listing rule on Jan. 23, which requires a company to maintain a minimum closing bid price of $1 for 10 consecutive trading days.

Argo has had to make some difficult decisions to weather the ongoing bear market and tough conditions facing crypto miners. On Dec. 28, 2022, it announced that it would sell its flagship mining facility, Helios, to digital asset investment manager Galaxy Digital, for $65 million.

The Helios mining facility during its grand opening. Source: YouTube

Crypto miners, in general, had a torrid year in 2022, with high electricity prices, falling crypto prices and increased mining difficulty all eating into their bottom line.

Polygon powers India police complaint portal, battling corruption

The First Information Report (FIR) launched on Polygon allows the citizens of Firozabad to register complaints against the police without worry of it being dismissed or manipulated.

The 2.8 million citizens of India’s Firozabad district may now be able to sleep a little tighter after the launch of a new police complaint portal that uses blockchain technology to prevent manipulation.

On Oct. 12, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal announced in a series of tweets that the Polygon blockchain protocolo is now being used by Firozabad police in Uttar Pradesh to fight against local police corruption and crime.

Called the First Information Report (FIR), the portal allows victims of crimes to register complaints against local police officers without the complaints either being dismissed or manipulated by potentially corrupt officers.

Nailwal shared that the project was very close to his heart because he grew up hearing stories of victims not getting justice due to local police corruption, many of who were victims of rape.

The video shared by Nailwal was posted by the Firozabad police, featuring a snippet from the senior superintendent of Firozabad police, Ashish Tiwari.

Nailwal said the FIR going on the blockchain ensures that the reports can not be manipulated or denied by lower-level officers and “could be a game-changer in ensuring right to justice.”

In the announcement, Nailwal also thanked the police commissioner for going beyond the call of duty to implement and innovate with technology to ensure equitable justice.

The announcement from the Firozabad police has also been picked up by others in the crypto community, with many seeing it as great news for Polygon, blockchain technology and the citizens of Firozabad.

Twitter user srinigoes, a veteran of the Indian navy, commented to their 15,200 followers it was “an amazing initiative” to get complaints registered on the blockchain, which would ensure transparency.

“The biggest problem in the interiors of India was whoever registered the FIR (First Information Report) first, had first mover advantage,” he said.

Kashif Raza, founder of crypto education startup Bitinning, noted on Twitter that the first complaint portal on Polygon has now been launched, meaning:

“1) Complaints are now immutable. 2) Verifiable. 3) Easy to file.”

Related: Australian state police sets up crypto division to trace transactions

On Oct 6, Cointelegraph reported that Polygon announced a partnership with the Ocean Conservation Exploration and Education Foundation (OCEEF) to promote ocean literacy through new creative, entertaining and engaging ways to give people exposure to deep underwater missions.