In recent statements, CZ made it clear that he has no intention of resuming the role of CEO, noting that his exit from the position marks the end of a phase for him.

CZ led Binance for over seven years before stepping down due to legal disputes with the United States, which accused him of overseeing weak anti-money laundering practices and facilitating transactions with sanctioned nations.

These allegations led to a fine of $4.3 billion for Binance and a personal fine of $50 million for CZ. Following his brief incarceration, CZ is now a major shareholder in Binance, holding a 90% stake, but he remains on the sidelines of operational leadership. Richard Teng, a Binance executive, has since taken over as CEO.

In a recent interview, CZ shared reflections on his time as CEO, acknowledging the demanding nature of the role and affirming his decision to move forward. “Leading Binance was an intense chapter, and I don’t feel the need to go back,” he stated.

He described his current involvement as purely that of a shareholder, expressing no inclination to return to the top job.

The interview also revealed CZ’s openness to potential buyers for his stake in Binance. Although he has received numerous offers, he remains noncommittal, saying, “I’m happy to review any offer, but I haven’t made any moves yet. For now, I’m just a regular shareholder.” 

His 90% ownership of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, constitutes a major portion of his wealth, which saw an increase in net worth recently, making him one of the wealthiest figures in the crypto industry.

CZ’s public reappearance at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai drew attention, with fans celebrating his presence despite his departure from Binance’s day-to-day operations.

His supporters welcomed him enthusiastically, with some hailing him as a “martyr” for the industry. Yet, even with the warm reception, Changpeng Zhao has emphasised that he’s ready to leave his CEO days behind.

Binance’s future, under the leadership of Teng, is expected to focus on reinforcing compliance measures and regaining trust following the recent controversies.

The company continues to hold its place as a major player in the cryptocurrency world, with CZ’s vision foundational to its growth.

His anticipated release has led to a surge in Binance Coin (BNB), the native token of Binance, which has risen by 17.6% in recent days. The market’s bullish response is a positive sign surrounding the return of Changpeng Zhao, as his influence continues to reverberate throughout the cryptocurrency industry.

Zhao, often referred to as “CZ,” has a huge impact on the company, where he still owns 90% of its shares despite stepping down as CEO during his legal proceedings.

Zhao’s imprisonment stemmed from his guilty plea to charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, accusing Binance of weak anti-money laundering controls and facilitating illegal transactions. As part of the settlement, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion, and Zhao was fined $50 million personally.

Richard Teng, a former regulator, took over as CEO following Zhao’s departure, but Zhao’s influence remains high, as revealed by the market’s reaction. Investors are betting on a stronger Binance ecosystem post-release, with the price of BNB disclosing renewed confidence in the company’s future.

Currently, many crypto companies are trying to gain stability in the market after the issues caused by Zhao’s imprisonment. In line with this, Binance Coin’s sharp rise means that market participants are positive about what lies ahead for the company and its founder.

Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering charges, in the most high-profile crypto case since Sam Bankman-Fried was jailed.

Changpeng Zhao, a Canadian, resigned from his post at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform late last year as part of a deal with US authorities.

According to investigations by two Treasury agencies, Binance failed to prevent transactions by movements such as the Islamic State group, al-Qaeda or the armed wing of Hamas.

Zhao pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws and Binance agreed in February to pay $4.3 billion to settle charges.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose three years behind bars for a crime that typically results in probation, according to a court filing.

“He made a business decision that violating US law was the best way to attract users, build his company, and line his pockets,” Justice Department lawyers said of Zhao in a sentencing memorandum.

“The sentence in this case will not just send a message to Zhao but also to the world.”

Attorneys for Zhao countered in a filing that being punished with probation is just, appropriate, and in line with legal precedent.

They cited Zhao’s acceptance of responsibility along with what they called his philanthropic track record.

“I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility,” Zhao, who lives in the United Arab Emirates, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, in November.

Binance was created in 2017 and cornered much of the crypto-trading market, turning its founder and chief executive Zhao into a billionaire.

While Binance was founded in China, Zhao moved its operations to other locations internationally after a crackdown on the crypto sector by Beijing.

Binance runs crypto exchanges and provides other services around the world, but it took a severe hit when crypto markets collapsed and regulators began probing the legality of its business.

The volatile industry surged in 2021, with a range of complex products and celebrity endorsements propelling it to a valuation in excess of $3 trillion in 2022.

But a series of scandals, including the November 2022 collapse of Binance’s main rival exchange, FTX, and criminal charges for several industry executives, saw public confidence evaporate and investors pull their money out of crypto.

FTX founder Bankman-Fried was given a 25-year jail term in March.

The crypto industry has bounced back in recent months, thanks in large part to US regulators giving the go-ahead for exchange traded funds (ETFs) in bitcoin which allow investors to trade the asset without actually opening a crypto account.

Binance’s new CEO Richard Teng told AFP this month that the company spent hundreds of millions of dollars on compliance and was working very closely with regulators.

[Source: AFP] [Featured Image Credit]

Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions that defeat cyberattacks, today released the Active Adversary analysis, “It’s Oh So Quiet (?): The Sophos Active Adversary Report for 1H 2024.”

The report, which analyzes more than 150 incident response (IR) cases handled by the Sophos X-Ops IR team in 2023, found that cybercriminals abused remote desktop protocol (RDP)—a common method for establishing remote access on Windows systems—in 90% of attacks.

This was the highest incidence of RDP abuse since Sophos began releasing its Active Adversary reports in 2021, covering data from 2020.

In addition, external remote services such as RDP were the most common vector by which attackers initially breached networks; they were the method of initial access in 65% of IR cases in 2023.

External remote services have consistently been the most frequent source of initial access for cybercriminals since the Active Adversary reports were launched in 2020, and defenders should consider this a clear sign to prioritize the management of these services when assessing risk to the enterprise.

“External remote services are a necessary, but risky, requirement for many businesses. Attackers understand the risks these services pose and actively seek to subvert them due to the bounty that lies beyond. Exposing services without careful consideration and mitigation of their risks inevitably leads to compromise. It doesn’t take long for an attacker to find and breach an exposed RDP server, and without additional controls, neither does finding the Active Directory server that awaits on the other side,” said John Shier, field CTO, Sophos.

In one Sophos X-Ops customer case, attackers successfully compromised the victim four times within six months, each time gaining initial access through the customer’s exposed RDP ports.

Once inside, the attackers continued to move laterally throughout the customer’s networks, downloading malicious binaries, disabling endpoint protection, and establishing remote access.

Compromised credentials and exploiting vulnerabilities are still the two most common root causes of attacks. However, the 2023 Active Adversary Report for Tech Leaders, released last August, found that in the first half of that year, for the first time, compromised credentials surpassed vulnerabilities as the most frequent root cause of attacks.

This trend continued through the rest of 2023, with compromised credentials representing the root cause of over 50% of IR cases for the entire year.

When looking at Active Adversary data cumulatively over the years from 2020 through 2023, compromised credentials were also the number one “all-time” root cause of attacks, involved in nearly a third of all IR cases.

Yet despite the historical prevalence of compromised credentials in cyberattacks, in 43% of IR cases in 2023, organizations did not have multi-factor-authentication configured.

Exploiting vulnerabilities was the second most common root cause of attacks, both in 2023 and when analyzing data cumulatively from 2020 through 2023, accounting for the root cause in 16% and 30% of IR cases, respectively.

“Managing risk is an active process. Organizations that do this well experience better security situations than those that don’t in the face of continuous threats from determined attackers. An important aspect of managing security risks, beyond identifying and prioritizing them, is acting on the information. Yet, for far too long, certain risks such as open RDP continue to plague organizations, to the delight of attackers who can walk right through the front door of an organization. Securing the network by reducing exposed and vulnerable services and hardening authentication will make organizations more secure overall and better able to defeat cyberattacks,” said Shier.

The Sophos Active Adversary Report for 1H 2024 is based on more than 150 incident response (IR) investigations spanning the globe across 26 sectors.

Targeted organizations are located in 23 different countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Australia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Botswana.

To learn more about the current adversary landscape, read It’s Oh So Quiet (?): The Sophos Active Adversary Report for 1H 2024 on Sophos.com.

More importantly, the Central Bank of Nigeria Act of 2007, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria charges the Bank with the overall control and administration of the monetary and fiscal sector policies of the Federal Government.

The objectives of the Central Bank of Nigeria also include, but are not limited to:  ensuring monetary and price stability, issuing legal tender currency in Nigeria, and maintaining external reserves to safeguard the international value of the legal lender currency.

Others are promoting a sound financial system in Nigeria, and last but not the list Act as Bankers and provide economic and financial advice to the Federal government.

In line with the optimal function of the Nigeria’s Apex Bank, on February 3, 2024, is issued a directive to the International Monetary Transfer Operators (IMTOs) to halt facilitation of dollar transfers to and from Nigeria to other countries.

The new directive also restricts inbound transfers to the naira equivalent of every dollar transfer and compels the IMTOs to quote exchange rates for naira rates at the nation’s official foreign exchange market (FX).

Furthermore, as the naira continued its downward trend against the United States dollar at the official and parallel foreign exchange markets, much to the despair of citizens, it recorded a new all-time low for the naira which depreciated to N1,730/$.

The development led operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to raid some Bureau De Change operators’ outlets in Abuja on Monday, arresting currency traders suspected to be speculating against the naira.

This represents N60 or 3.59 percent drop from N1,670/$ recorded at the close of trade at the black market on Friday.

The naira depreciation followed a strong demand for dollars by speculators as well as individuals traveling for business, tourism, education, and health, according to currency dealers. Meanwhile, the naira was exchanged above N2,000 against the Great Britain Pound at the parallel market on Monday but sold at 1931/£ at the official market, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria exchange.

However, In a recent twist, the Nigerian government asked the telecommunications firms to restrict access to the websites of cryptocurrency firms such as; Binance, OctaFX, Coinbase and others, months after its Central Bank issued a guideline to govern digital asset operators’ activities.

Implicit to note is the fact that in December 2023 the Central Bank of Nigeria changed its stance on crypto assets and asked banks to disregard its February 2021 ban on crypto transactions.

This new restriction on crypto websites is aimed at slowing currency speculation activities in the country, with Binance stating that its platform is not for currency pricing.

The platform said this after users complained about their inability to buy dollars.

One user on X, @MikaelCBernard, tweeted,

“There’s no more dollars available on Binance oh. It is like Binance traders have gone on strike. You can only sell, but you can’t buy”.

While noting its commitment to a market-driven, fraud-free, and manipulation-free platform for its users, Binance said, “Furthermore, as industry leaders, we are working hand in hand with local authorities, lawmakers, and regulators to ensure we act on non-compliance.”

Later on Wednesday, the firm confirmed that it has paused transactions to protect users from price suppression.

Addressing rumours that currency speculation was thriving on its platform, the firm said, “It is important to note that foreign exchange rates are influenced by various complex factors, which Binance does not influence on.

“However, we continue to actively engage with regulators, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders to foster an open, transparent dialogue about managing the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency and financial markets.”

However, in a move that began as a rumour, the Nigerian Communications Commission has asked telecom firms to block access to the websites of Binance and other cryptocurrency firms.

According to a top source in the telecoms industry, telcos got a directive from the commission today.

The restriction is to take effect immediately, the source added. There is no timeline yet for this restriction.

When Nigeria blocked access to Twitter in 2021, it asked telcos to restrict access to the platform.

It is instructing to note that, revenue in the Cryptocurrencies market is projected to reach US$32.6m in 2024, showing an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 12.66% resulting in a projected total amount of US$52.5m by 2028.

The average revenue per user in the Cryptocurrencies market amounts to US$7.0 in 2024. From a global comparison perspective, it is shown that the highest revenue is reached in the United States (US$23,220.00m in 2024).

In the Cryptocurrencies market, the number of users is expected to amount to 6.32m users by 2028. User penetration will be 2.03% in 2024 and is expected to hit 2.52% by 2028.

Nigeria’s interest in Bitcoins reached a peak during the summer of 2020, reaching the highest level since early 2018.

This conclusion reveals itself after investigating Bitcoin trading volume against domestic currencies used for the transaction of the virtual currency.

The African country was said to be one of the three countries with the most Bitcoin trading in the world in 2020.

It is estimated that over 22 million people, 10.3% of Nigeria’s total population, currently own cryptocurrency.

State of Crypto in Nigeria 47% of Nigerians are Actively Involved in Crypto Trading, whilst 27% of Nigerians are actively engaged with crypto, a new study shows as the country finds safety in the currency amid worries about the foreign exchange rate.

According to insights by CoinJournal shared with Business Post, cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and various alternatives, are no longer just investments for speculation, “They represent a significant change in how people view and use money, providing decentralized options compared to traditional financial systems.”

Again, Nigeria is ranked as the top country for cryptocurrency usage and ownership. With 45% of its population using or owning cryptocurrency in 2022, other top countries include Thailand 44%, Turkey 44% and the United Arab Emirates 34%.

But the United States is ranked 22nd on the list, with only 16% of the population owning or suing cryptocurrency, while the United Kingdom ranks 50th with 11% ownership and usage.

With Nigeria’s staggering youth unemployment pegged at 53.4%, it can be implied that the majority of those deals are in digital assets in Nigeria.

This recent restriction on Binance and progressive restriction by the telecos will make the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) a succour for cryptocurrency traders.

VPN gives an extra layer of privacy and anonymity to hide our activity and location, avoiding hackers and trackers (especially on public WIFI).

A VPN also helps you overcome online censorship, torrent it anonymously, and access your favourite streaming services when traveling.

Nigeria’s social media has been littered with several crypto stakeholders advising their community on using Virtual Private Networks in the face of this ban.  Despite this, Binance is currently embroiled in regulatory issues in the US.

The firm recently agreed to record $4.3 billion fine, its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, is in the US awaiting sentencing. However, these challenges notwithstanding, Binance’s data reflects robust activity for its USDT/NGN trading pair, with nearly 5 billion Naira in trades, equivalent to $3million, within the last 24  hours.

However, considering the legality and complexity revolving around Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and the seeming commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria to carry out its reform on Foreign Exchange, no one can predict with exactitude where and how the Federal Government of Nigeria chose to wild its big stick.

Already, the Special Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga has called for the ban of Binance, Kucoin, and other trading platforms in Nigeria.

Onanuga accused the platforms of manipulating the naira leading to the continued fall of the Nigerian currency in the forex market. This is coming amid speculations that the government is already considering the ban.

The President’s Adviser urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to take swift action to end the operations of the crypto exchanges in the country.

Calling for the ban via a post he titled “the Naira-Dollar manipulators” on X, Onanuga accused Nigerians trading currency on the Binance platform of unpatriotism.

The question remains, Can VPN Safe Cryptocurrency Traders?

Changpeng Zhao, the Founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, stepped down and pleaded guilty to criminal charges as part of a historic $4.3 billion settlement with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). 

The settlement follows a lengthy investigation into Binance’s alleged violations of anti-money laundering (AML) laws and failure to register as a money transmitting business.

As part of the plea agreement, Zhao admitted to the failure to maintain an effective AML program, a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). In addition to stepping down from his role, Zhao will pay a personal fine of $50 million and cooperate with the ongoing DOJ investigation into Binance.

The settlement includes Binance itself pleading guilty to violations of the BSA and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The company will pay $1.8 billion fine and implement comprehensive reforms to its AML and sanctions compliance programs.

This settlement represents the largest ever imposed on a cryptocurrency exchange, signaling a significant escalation of the government’s efforts to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. The impact of this decision is expected to reverberate throughout the industry, prompting other exchanges to strengthen their AML and sanctions compliance programs.

Binance is also set to announce members of a new board to oversee the company’s governance. The company will submit to a U.S.-based third-party monitor as part of the settlement, adding an extra layer of oversight.

Forbes initially reported Zhao’s discussions with the DOJ to cede his role, marking a significant victory for the government and a substantial setback for the cryptocurrency industry. This settlement highlights the government’s vigilant approach to scrutinising the cryptocurrency sector and taking decisive action against companies found in violation of the law.

CZ’s stay in the region involved meetings with Alassane Dramane Ouattara, President of Ivory Coast and Macky Sall, President of Senegal, amongst others.

Changpeng Zhao, known more commonly by his initials “CZ”, expressed the company’s commitment to collaborating with policymakers in Africa as well as highlighting blockchain’s importance to the financial economy. “Africa is primed for crypto adoption as blockchain provides financial accessibility not currently available to lots of Africans”, CZ said.

During his visit, CZ announced Binance’s partnership with Jokkolabs, one of Africa’s first social impact hubs. Through this partnership, Binance will launch a blockchain awareness and education programme throughout communities in Francophone Africa.

“Together, we will reinforce the region as a hub of blockchain innovation and entrepreneurship”, he said. The partnership will involve a monetary donation for community education workshops with an aim to increase blockchain literacy and skills. Binance aims to build the fintech community across the Francophone Africa region, ensuring enthusiasts are empowered to build blockchain solutions and solve real-world problems.

Changpeng Zhao ’s visit comes a week after the announcement of Binance’s partnership with Senegalese Khaby Lame, the most-followed creator on TikTok.

It also comes a few months after Binance’s sponsorship of AFCON, the largest international football championship in Africa, showing Binance’s commitment to driving blockchain adoption within the region.