Former Binance CEO ‘CZ’ Holds 64% Of BNB Supply: Forbes Report

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) reportedly owns 64% Binance Coin’s BNB $608 circulating supply, or roughly 94 million BNB tokens, a Forbes report revealed. Gray Wolf Analytics discovered that the Binance founding team received 80 million BNB tokens, of which the business still controls 46 million. The Binance exchange’s native coin, BNB, is utilized on the Binance platform for rewards and fees. At $593 per token, BNB has a market capitalization of more over $91 billion as of right now. BNB has been enjoying a bull run that more than doubled the price of the token from lows in January 2024.

Current CEO Richard Teng took over for CZ after he entered a guilty plea to breaking the Bank Secrecy Act and resigned from his position as leader of Binance. $50 million in fines for the former CEO and $4.3 billion for Binance were part of the deal. With regards to money laundering and sanctions violations, Zhao was sentenced to four months in jail on April 30, which is far less than the three years that the prosecutors had suggested.

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Australian Securities Exchange Approves its First Spot Bitcoin ETF Trading

The Australian Securities market (ASX), the biggest stock market in Australia, has authorized the country’s first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which is scheduled to be live on June 20. According to a VanEck press release, investment firm VanEck will be the issuer of the spot Bitcoin ETF, the VanEck Bitcoin ETF (VBTC).

Australians are becoming more interested in learning about Bitcoin, especially through a regulated, transparent, and well-known investment vehicle, stated Arian Neiron, chief executive officer of VanEck in the Asia-Pacific region. Bitcoin is an emerging asset class that many advisers and investors want to access.

VBTC also makes bitcoin more accessible by managing all the back-end complexity. The IBTC’s holdings are stored offline in a device not connected to the internet, using a crypto custody solution that meets Australian institutional standards, according to Cointelegraph.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bank Proposal Gains Momentum

Nayib Bukele, the pro-Bitcoin president of El Salvador, is advocating for the creation of private investment banks in the country which if allowed would provide Bitcoin BTC $66,034 investors with access to financial services and less limitations than regular banks.

As per El Mundo, the BPI will not be subject to the same severe regulations as conventional banks, including limitations on interacting with foreign banks or financing firms associated with its shareholders or inside a commercial consortium. There will be no more limitations on loans. If authorized, new private investments require two shareholders and $50 million in funding.

The Technology, Tourism, and Investment Commission, led by Bukele, received a reform proposal from El Salvador’s Minister of Economy, María Luisa Hayem. But approval for it hasn’t happened yet. There has been no vote in the Commission or contact with authorities by legislators over the approval of the reform