Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang breaks down the record $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. government — whether it was fair, the chances CEO Changpeng Zhao will face any jail time, whether it was ultimately a good thing for Binance and for the U.S., and what this changes for the industry going forward. They also delve into the SEC’s lawsuit against Kraken, and the drama around Sam Altman’s firing from Open AI and what it says about corporate governance and crypto companies. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• the details of the settlement between Binance and the Department of Justice 
• how a core part of Binance’s business model was to allow bad actors on its platform, according to Robert
• why Binance had to settle with the U.S. government even though it's not an American company
• why Tom believes that the settlement represents a "very bad lesson"
• whether U.S. market makers should be liable in cases like these
• how the crypto community has reacted to the settlement 
• what the settlement means for the future of the crypto industry 
• whether the new SEC lawsuit against Kraken is just a “copy-and-paste” of its suit against Coinbase
• The drama around Sam Altman’s removal from his role as CEO of OpenAI
• Why Robert thinks that the OpenAI board was “silly and dumb”
• What the problems at OpenAI say about its innovative governance structure 

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Disclosures

Links

Binance Settlement

• Unchained: 
• Binance to Pay $4.3 Billion to Settle U.S. DOJ Criminal Probe; CEO Changpeng Zhao Pleads Guilty for Violating Bank Secrecy Act 
• Binance CEO CZ Released on $175 Million Bond

SEC Charges Against Kraken

• Unchained: Crypto Exchange Kraken Accused by SEC of Violating Securities Law

OpenAI

• The Verge: Sam Altman returns as CEO of OpenAI
• Unchained: Worldcoin Falls and Rises After Sam Altman-OpenAI Saga

Haseeb’s tweet on accelerationism

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