Binance CEO to plead guilty, pay $4.3B in fines, WSJ reports

Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive of Binance plans to step down and plead guilty to violating criminal U.S. anti-money laundering requirements in a deal that may preserve the company’s ability to continue operating, Dave Michaels, Patricia Kowsmann and Vivian Salama of Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the matter. Zhao is scheduled to appear in Seattle federal court Tuesday afternoon and enter his plea, sources told the Journal. Zhao will also plead guilty to a criminal charge and agree to pay fines totaling $4.3B, which includes amounts to settle civil allegations made by regulators, the people added. Publicly traded companies in the crypto space include Bit Digital (BTBT), Coinbase (COIN), Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation (GREE), Marathon Digital (MARA), MicroStrategy (MSTR), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) and TeraWulf (WULF).