Binance, a crypto exchange has suspended a member of its Binance Wallet team. The company added it could take further legal actions after launching an internal investigation over allegations of insider trading.
In a March 25 post on X, Binance Wallet, the exchange’s crypto wallet business, launched an investigation after it “received a complaint alleging that one of our staff members engaged in front-running trades using insider information to gain improper profits.”
It also claimed that the earlier investigation found a Binance Wallet staffer, who had joined the team the previous month using information from a former position in a business development role at BNB Chain to “front-run” trades of a project token.
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Binance Wallet wrote, “The employee was aware the project was planning a Token Generation Event (TGE) and anticipated it would generate significant community interest,”
It also claimed that the staffer “used multiple linked wallet addresses to purchase a large volume of the project’s tokens” before it publicly announced the token launch and then, after the announcement, “quickly sold part of his holdings to realize significant profits.”
Massachusetts subpoenas Robinhood over sports prediction markets
A probe has been launched over Robinhood’s prediction markets offering by Massachusetts’ securities regulator. The offerings have allowed users to bet on the outcomes of a slew of events, including basketball tournaments.
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According to Cointelegraph, on March 24, Reuters reported that Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin said, his office subpoenaed Robinhood last week to get information on its marketing materials and the number of Massachusetts-based users that traded sports events contracts on college basketball tournaments.
Galvin said he was worried if the trading platform was “linking a gambling event on a popular sports event that’s especially popular to young people to a brokerage account.”
“This is just another gimmick from a company that’s very good at gimmicks to lure investors away from sound investing,” he added.
The prediction market hub was launched by Robinhood on March 17. This would be initially available to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission-event contracts on college basketball tournaments and the May federal funds rate would be included in the regulated prediction platform Kalshi.
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A Robinhood spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the event contracts “are regulated by the CFTC and offered through CFTC-registered entities.”
The spokesperson said, “Prediction markets have become increasingly relevant for retail and institutional investors alike, and we’re proud to be one of the first platforms to offer these products to retail customers in a safe and regulated manner.”
USDC stablecoin receives approval for use in Japan, says Circle
After one of its local partners was granted regulatory approval to list the US dollar stablecoin three weeks ago, Circle announced that it will formally launch its stablecoin in Japan on March 26.
In a statement on March 24, Circle said, that USDC will first be listed on the “SBI VC Trade” crypto exchange under a joint venture between its parent firm — Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings — and Circle’s Japanese entity Circle Japan KK.
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Three weeks earlier, on March 4, SBI VC Trade received the first regulatory approval in the industry to list USDC under the stablecoin regulatory framework of the Japan Financial Services Agency.
In the near future, Circle hopes to list USDC on bitbank, bitFlyer, and Binance Japan.
Two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan are bitbank and bitFlyer, which processed over $25 million each in the last day and had over 1.85 million website visits in the previous month.
In a March 24 X post, Circle's Jeremy Allaire stated that the regulatory approval follows two years of back-and-forth discussions with regulators, banking partners, and industry players.
