Share this article
CFTC Could Force Binance to Cease U.S. Operations as Part of Settlement: Bernstein
The crypto exchange will look to safeguard its dominant international business, which is its cash cow, the report said.
By Will Canny
Updated May 9, 2023, 4:11 a.m. Published Mar 28, 2023, 7:43 a.m.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) could require Binance to cease operations in the U.S. as part of a potential settlement, Bernstein said in a research report on Tuesday.
The Bernstein report comes after the regulator sued the crypto exchange and its founder Changpeng Zhao for allowing U.S. citizens to trade derivatives and for willful evasion of the country’s laws.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The CFTC is charging Binance with violating laws around futures offerings, illegal off-exchange commodity options, failing to register as a futures commissions merchant, designated contract market or swap execution facility and other charges related to its know-your-customer (KYC) or anti-money laundering (AML) processes.
Binance.US is a minor part of the overall business and makes up less than 5% of the exchange’s global operations, the report said.
Given that cryptocurrency trading is a global business, Bernstein expects that Binance will look to “safeguard its dominant international business, which is its cash cow, and where it has worked on licenses in Europe, Africa and Australia,” analysts Gautam Chhugani and Manas Agrawal wrote.
The broker says this latest enforcement is not “material to overall crypto markets” as Binance.US operations are not material, and it doesn’t expect this news to trigger a large selloff in the market, as the “regulatory narrative” has pivoted from the U.S. to expected Hong Kong and China flows. The Hong Kong retail crypto market is expected to open as of June 1.
Bitcoin , the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was trading 2.8% lower at $27,047 at time of writing.
Bernstein says it continues to expect Hong Kong and China regulatory positives to offset the negative headlines emanating from the U.S. markets, until there is a regulatory shift in the U.S.
Read more: Binance CEO Zhao Calls CFTC Suit an ‘Incomplete Recitation of Facts’
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Pye Finance Raises $5M Seed Round Led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures
The platform aims to make locked Solana staking positions tradable via an onchain marketplace.
What to know:
- Pye Finance raised a $5 million seed round led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures, with participation from Solana Labs, Nascent and Gemini.
- The startup is building an onchain marketplace on Solana for time-locked staking positions that can be traded.
- Pye says the product targets Solana’s large pool of staked SOL, worth roughly $75 billion, and aims to give validators and stakers more flexibility over terms and reward flows.
Top Stories
