'Binance just the beginning': U.S. government warns crypto sector

As the crypto market licks its wounds after Binance's unprecedented scolding, the US warns the sector - was this just the beginning?

Just a few days ago, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement in its lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance, forcing Binance to withdraw from the U.S. market and create a must pay $4.3 billion fine.

Meanwhile Changpeng "CZ" Zhao a prison sentence over the head in the US, although he is likely to escape for now on $175 million bail. It has not yet been decided whether CZ will be allowed to leave the country or not. According to the Justice Department, he is a "flight risk."

However, the reprimand of the world's largest crypto exchange and its founder is not the end of U.S. regulators' battle against the international crypto sector. On the contrary, Binance (and the earlier legal dispute against Sam Bankman-Fried) is just the beginning.

At least that is what Caroline Pham of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) clearly states. According to the prosecutor, her authority's agenda knows no bounds. Even after the Binance case, the CFTC will continue to take an unbiased approach to prosecuting non-U.S. companies trading in financial assets, including cryptocurrencies.

CFTC Commissioner Pham: "It should be clear that the CFTC will not stop prosecuting non-U.S. companies."

Christian Goldsmith Romero, another CFTC member, said that "there are no pirate ships" in U.S. markets and that "access to U.S. customers is a privilege, not a right."

In accordance with applicable law and policy, the agency will continue to aggressively target crypto exchanges, he said.