Investors withdrew 3,423 bitcoins from Binance immediately after the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued the crypto exchange and its CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao for regulatory violations.

This saw a reduction in Binance’s total Bitcoin balance while other exchanges registered an increase within the period. 

Data from Coinglass shows that US-based crypto exchange, Coinbase, Bitfinex, OKX and Gemini saw a combined Bitcoin deposit of 1,032 as some investors worried about what may befall the Binance exchange. 

Investors King understands that Monday’s bitcoin withdrawal on the Binance platform constitutes more than 90% of the total withdrawals in the past seven days. A total of 3,915 BTC were withdrawn from the Binance platform in the past week. 

It would be recalled that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) alleged that the world’s biggest crypto exchange by trading volume is running unregistered securities and also tried to evade regulators by asking customers in the U.S. to use VPN. 

Binance’s compliance programme has been “ineffective” and the firm, under the direction of Zhao, told employees and customers to circumvent compliance controls, the CFTC said. 

Responding to the development in a series of tweets, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) who was born in China and moved to Canada at the age of 12, called CFTC’s complaint “unexpected and disappointing”.

“Upon an initial review, the complaint appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts, and we do not agree with the characterisation of many of the issues alleged in the complaint,” the crypto billionaire said. 

CZ however stated that the crypto exchange will collaborate with U.S. regulators to resolve all grey areas. 

Meanwhile, some crypto enthusiasts have expressed huge concern with respect to the offensive launched against crypto firms in the U.S. They observed that the renewed offensive is coming amid the collapse of some big banks in the United States. 

The CEO of Bittrex Global, Oliver Linch recently disclosed that institutional interest in Bitcoin has arrived. Linch added that he is anticipating more adoption, stating that leading financial institutions like Goldman Sachs will soon take on a larger role in crypto.

In an interview with Scott Melker, the head of the crypto exchange clarified that institutional adoption will not hurt cryptocurrency but rather aid the pace of innovation within the industry. 

While acknowledging that there may be some painful moments along the way especially as it relates to regulation, Linch however anticipates that many partnerships will be formed between traditional financial institutions and those in the crypto sector which will be good for the crypto industry. 

Speaking further, Linch also disclosed that during the bear market, many of the financial giants moved to establish crypto divisions within their companies, positioning themselves for the growth of the industry.

“Historically, those big players have been the biggest drivers of innovation. Are they a bit slow to adopt at the moment? Yeah, sure. But actually, the big change will happen when they stop fighting it and we stop fighting them. 

“And we start talking about partnering and working together. Show them a way that it can be done and it can make them money and I guarantee you they won’t stand in the way of that. They’ll be pedal to the metal to exploit that opportunity.” Linch said. 

Investors King earlier reported that bitcoin is up by 50% this year and it has outperformed major stock indexes and commodities despite the collapse of major crypto-related banks. 

A report made by Goldman Sachs shows bitcoin as the best-performing investment asset in the world since the beginning of 2023, outperforming gold, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100. 

Bitcoin has so far enjoyed a remarkable year. From a low of $16,000, the flagship cryptocurrency is currently trading at $28,154. Data from Binance platform shows. 

Bitcoin has surged to a 9-month high amid the banking turmoil in the United States. The flagship cryptocurrency is up by 50% since the beginning of 2023, trading at $27,779 at the time of writing this report.

Investors King earlier reported that the crypto mobile applications also increased by 15 per cent due to the uncertainty surrounding the US banking sector following the collapse of three big banks in the United States. It would be recalled that Silvergate, Signature and Silicon Valley Banks were shut down last week due to issues related to liquidity. 

Investors and crypto experts have extolled the resilience of Bitcoin amid the banking crisis last week. They noted that bitcoin is trading at its lowest correlation to stock in months. Thereby making the most capitalised cryptocurrency a valuable alternative asset. 

For instance, the Head of Ark Investment, Cathie Wood said “Indeed, during the last week, crypt assets behaved like safe havens: along with gold”. 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin continued to hold firm during the early trading hours on Tuesday (today) while other crypto assets were trading lower. Traders across the globe are looking at the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike as its two-day FOMC meeting begins today. 

Similarly, there has been an additional confidence boost in the global banking sector following Sunday’s announcement that Swiss banking giant UBS agreed to buy its crisis-hit rival Credit Suisse in an emergency deal worth over $3 billion.

Several largest central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, also came together on Sunday to announce “coordinated action” to enhance liquidity in their standing U.S. dollar swap arrangements.

Interestingly, experts have predicted that bitcoin would benefit from central bank efforts to bolster liquidity in the global financial system. Bitcoin rose to a record of $69,000 in November 2021 after central banks and governments launched unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus measures.