The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is pushing for Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao to serve a three-year prison sentence for his role in Binance's violation of federal sanctions and money laundering laws. This recommendation comes after Zhao's guilty plea last November.
Zhao's attorneys have argued against jail time, citing his payment of a substantial fine and his acknowledgment of responsibility for the offenses. However, the DOJ is firm in its stance, filing a sentencing memo proposing a 36-month prison term and a $50 million fine for Zhao.
Following his guilty plea, the initial aftermath of the halving saw Bitcoin transaction fees soar to over $146 for medium-priority transactions and $170 for high-priority transactions. However, recent data from Mempool.space indicates a significant reduction, with medium-priority transactions now costing $8.48 and high-priority transactions priced at $9.32.
The hashprice index, a metric developed by Luxor to measure miner earnings per unit of hashrate, has also dropped from $182.98 per hash/day to $81. This decline reflects the impact of the halving on miner revenue.
Despite the anticipated revenue boost from the Runes protocol, designed to create fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, initial data suggests a different outcome. The floor prices for the Runes NFT collection dropped by almost 50% within 24 hours of the halving event. In contrast, ordinal collections such as Bitcoin Pullets and NodeMonkes experienced price increases, according to CoinGecko.
The DOJ's sentencing memo emphasizes the need for a significant penalty to deter similar violations and punish Zhao for his actions. Zhao's defense filing countered, stating that Zhao was unaware of specific transactions involving criminal funds on Binance. They argue that Binance, as a non-U.S. company, was not prohibited from having users from U.S.-sanctioned countries on its platform.
Despite the ongoing legal proceedings, Zhao's supporters, including family members and former U.S. Senator Max Baucus, have expressed their backing for him. Zhao was initially scheduled for sentencing in February but agreed to a postponement to April 30.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, also pleaded guilty to charges last year, agreeing to a $4.3 billion fine and court-appointed monitoring. The appointment of the monitor is pending.