Crypto gossip about CZ in global media equals mainstream adoption
Crypto gossip in the mainstream press points to the fact that the crypto industry has achieved mainstream adoption. All we have to do is watch Reuters dig into Changpeng Zhao and his post-scandal personal life to know this is true.
The saga just continues to unfold. Changpeng Zhao (known as “CZ”) is the Chinese-Canadian founder and CEO of Binance. The platform is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.
And CZ is very angry. Reuters spent the last few months writing unfavorable articles about Binance. As the drama unfolded, CZ’s family was drawn into the gossip report. This prompted CZ to post some furious rebuttals. Which, frankly, has been very absorbing.
Crypto gossip and doxxing
Here’s what happened. Earlier this year, CZ caught the attention of the Reuters news agency. In a special investigation, the news agency made many claims against CZ.
CZ has not been behind in expressing its disgust in this report. The Binance CEO claims the authors threatened to doxx his family if he didn’t comply with the release of information.
Crypto Gossip: Blog post retaliation
In a blog post, which makes insanely good reading (with lots of interconnected rabbit holes), CZ described how unimpressed he was with the report.
“As a founder, I have learned that maintaining strong, cordial relationships with journalists is a simple matter. We work hard to respond quickly and accurately to your requests, and 99.9% of the time this results in unbiased reporting. But in very rare cases, the relationship can be so destroyed that it is no longer possible to operate in a mutual way.”
CZ says the Reuters reporter had written a series of stories about Binance over several months, but only used anonymous sources to get “facts”.
CZ says that due to a “breakdown in trust,” Binance took the unusual step of releasing the entire email chain with the Reuters report. Juicy!
Crypto Gossip: The Case of Crypto Being Mainstream
CZ says he was asked about Binance’s commitment to compliance and CZ’s personal leadership style.
“These are fair subjects that I am happy to address. What is unique this time is that they have signaled a new low and have crossed the line into indefensible territory. They have signaled an intention to report on my children.”
The reason this is a big deal is that Binance is currently working with global law enforcement agencies to seize the assets of criminals. Obviously, this has upset many of the bad guys.
CZ goes on to say, “My toddlers are not in the public interest and this reporter would knowingly put them at risk by publishing information about them. This is unprincipled and intolerable.”
CZ says Binance could not get assurances that the reporter would not refrain from writing about his family. So instead of answering them directly, “they take the story directly to the community.”
Many celebrities know they’ve made it when the news media says wildly untrue things about them to get the clicks. And of course, fake news has been known to spread faster than the truth.
Bigger celebrities are just too famous to worry about fake articles about them. And this may now be the case for CZ. Binance has been litigious in the past, taking on Bloomberg after a quote from a Binance user declared that Binance was a “massive shitcoin casino.”
This time, however, instead of suing, CZ seems to have decided to blog about it instead. Yes actually, his influence is big enough now that he doesn’t need to sue. Yep. Crypto is mainstream.
Blog post clap back
Continuing the saga, CZ broke down some of the issues that Binance was accused of. He said the accusation that crypto is a tool for criminals is a total myth.
“Reuters has reported that Binance had been used as a conduit for laundering at least $2.35 billion in criminal funds, but failed to provide any details on how this figure is calculated. And note that this represents less than 0, 1% of the total funds that have flowed through Binance since 2019. Despite Reuters’ figure being grossly overstated, it would still indicate that Binance is one of the most effective financial institutions in keeping illicit funds out of the platform. We has zero tolerance for criminal activity.”
Zhao’s family ties
Gossip is never complete with who the person in question’s latest crush is. When it comes to crypto gossip, that person is Yi He.
Among the co-founders of Binance is a former media anchor and crypto entrepreneur who is quite the hottie.
He Yi first met CZ at a crypto conference while working for OkCoin, where Zhao gave a presentation on blockchain technology. She took him to OkCoin, but then both left to start Binance in 2017.
Reuters claims its anonymous source said Changpeng Zhao and He Yi had been having an affair for several years and had love children together. Reporting on CZ’s love life like this drags this story far, far out of business news and firmly into mainstream clickbait territory. Yes, indeed, crypto has made it.
Reuters says: “For several years, Zhao and Yi He were in a romantic relationship, according to four people who knew the couple. They have a son who was born in the United States, the people said. Companies typically have guidelines for such relationships, and some require a of the persons concerned leave the organisation.
It is hardly the scandal of the century that Reuters wants it to be. A Binance spokesperson said: “Two consenting adults starting a family together is not news. The media has known about their (pre-Binance) relationship for years.”
Crypto gossip is mainstream, ergo crypto is mainstream
CZ said he can live with the occasional negative news story. “We’re focused on building and improving Binance and the blockchain ecosystem. We’re in this for the long term. It’s never about tomorrow, this year, or next year. We’re building a company that we believe will last a hundred years or more.”
While CZ was very annoyed by this series of articles, he can take solace in a new idea. The fact that he is cannon fodder for the mainstream clickbait hunt signals that crypto has made it safely into all of our lives.
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