Editor's note Amid a political news cycle that has been stuck in a nauseating loop, covering crypto is often refreshing. Partisan forces have yet to dig out the trenches. A lot of the current task is just getting working definitions in play. Meanwhile, the technology advances at a mind-boggling rate, and there are still enough outrageous scams, absurd tomfoolery and indeed general skullduggery to keep everything from getting dull. Speaking of skulduggery, I will begin this week with a comment on a challenge to journalism in the crypto industry that has wide-spanning implications. Not many people think about the relationship …

In a lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Binance alleged that an article published by Forbes was defamatory and caused "millions of dollars" in damages. While there are already questions forming around the merits of the lawsuit, one thing is no longer in doubt: Binance is getting serious. Binance has retained the services of Charles Harder, the attorney best known for representing Hulk Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea) in a suit against Gawker Media. He procured an award of $115 million in compensatory damages and a further $25 million in punitive damages for his client in …

Binance has filed a lawsuit in the state of New Jersey against Forbes Media and two of its journalists, Michael del Castillo and Jason Brett, alleging that an article published under the title "Leaked ‘Tai Chi’ Document Reveals Binance’s Elaborate Scheme To Evade Bitcoin Regulators" was defamatory. Binance is demanding both compensatory and punitive damages. The article, which appeared on the Forbes website on Oct. 29, reported that the "Tai Chi" document contained details of a scheme designed to “intentionally deceive regulators” in the United States. According to Forbes, the document described a plan to funnel revenue from a U.S. …

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said that decentralized finance is here to stay despite many DeFi projects showing signs of being in a bubble. In a Nov. 17 interview with Russia’s news agency RBC, Zhao argued that “a lot of DeFi projects are already in a bubble, and I also believe that there are some signs of a bubble in the DeFi industry, but this does not mean that DeFi will eventually disappear entirely.” Zhao went on to say that the DeFi industry has a lot of potential for growth, noting that DeFi still …

Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, says he needs to do more to block “intelligent” US traders from illegally accessing his global exchange. In an interview with Bloomberg, CZ said his exchange needs to be “smarter about the way we block” US traders from gaining access to the platform. He said: “Basically, we do continually try to improve our blocking. There are sometimes a few guys who want to circumvent our blocking and still use the platform and we have to come up with a smarter way to protect that and when we do, we block them.” Binance, …

After launching its Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool in April, crypto exchange Binance has now launched an in-house mining pool for the market’s largest altcoin by market cap, Ether (ETH). For the first month, between Nov. 12 and Dec. 12, Binance is trying to attract miners by offering a zero-fee regime. After that, those contributing their hashin power to the pool will be charged a competitive 0.5% commission on their earnings. Binance’s instructions for setting up a mining pool account note that participants will need to use a Windows or Linux operating system, GPU (NVIDIA or AMD graphics card memory of …

The United States arm of major crypto exchange Binance is making its services available to North Carolina residents. Binance.US opened registration to U.S. users in September 2019 but excluded the residents of 13 states due to local laws. It has since added four states, including North Carolina. In a statement Thursday to Cointelegraph, Binance.US CEO Catherine Coley said that the digital asset marketplace was now available for North Carolina’s 10.5 million residents, allowing them to buy, trade and earn crypto. The state is home to Research Triangle Park, an area well known for high-tech research and development firms including Cisco …

The Ethereum (ETH) network has suffered what looks like a hard fork today as reports emerged of outages and irregularities on infrastructure providers Infura and Blockchair. While initially it was believed to be an internal issue in Infura, a hosting service used by some exchanges and service providers to interact with the Ethereum network, independent node operators have reported issues as well. During the incident, Binance paused withdrawals, and its CEO Chanpheng Zhao referred to a “possible chain split” as the culprit. The exchange has since resumed withdrawals as of 10:20 am UTC. Blockchair, a popular block explorer, reported a …

The mood of fear, uncertainty and doubt, otherwise known as FUD, that has gripped some of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges since October heightened last week — and it had nothing to do with the United States presidential election. “Weird Binance fud Friday and weird huobi arrest fud today,” tweeted MyCrypto CEO Taylor Monahan, referring to an Oct. 29 Forbes report that Binance had set up its U.S. unit, Binance.US, as a regulatory decoy and referencing separate rumors that Chinese authorities had detained a senior executive at Huobi. FUD, which has long dogged the cryptoverse, is commonly defined as misinformation intentionally …

Bitcoin (BTC) resurgence is continuing to sap capital from the altcoin markets as other cryptocurrencies are struggling to catch up to BTC. DeFi struggles as Bitcoin shines The DeFi Composite Index, first launched by Binance Futures in late August, is seeing its second month of strain, trading down from its all-time highs of close to $1,200 to under $400, a decline of roughly 60%. In fact, most DeFi tokens have erased 70% to 90% of their gains since early September, as Binance’s Nov. 5 report notes. In early October, Cointelegraph reported on the index’s already stark decline to $507. Its …

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is launching a new affiliate program in Africa after announcing the termination of its Uganda-based service. On Nov. 3, Binance officially announced the launch of the Binance Africa Affiliate Program, which aims to promote Binance across the continent. According to the exchange, the new program is open to influencers, crypto enthusiasts and content creators across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. A spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph that Binance’s services in Africa include a fiat on-ramp for users from Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda. The exchange also provides peer-to-peer services for users from Kenya. …

On Nov. 4, crypto data market aggregator CryptoQuant published a chart indicating Binance’s Estimated Leverage Ratio (open interest divided by Bitcoin (BTC) reserves) has pushed into new all-time highs. The record was set on Nov. 3 after a spike in open interest pushed Binance’s ELR above 0.18 for the first time. The spike in ELR came shortly before Bitcoin established a double-bottom at roughly $13,400. New data suggests Bitcoin’s bullish push into 2020 highs above $14,000 may have been fueled by leverage, which could mean markets will continue to see significant volatility in the short term. However, Binance also recorded …