A ‘raid’ by any other name: biggest exchange Binance’s media saga

The Block reports a police 'raid' on the Shanghai office of Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. Binance wants to sue.

The New York-based The Block reports during the week the Shanghai office of Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has shuttered after a police “raid.”

In the wake, Bitcoin falls below $8,000, continuing a seven-day decline.

Binance issues a denial, blasts The Block, a prominent news outlet, and says it would sue.

That raises issues of journalistic practices and corporate spin — important in a sector whose ideological bend is often skeptical of media, yet where publications are inexperienced.

Binance’s denial: “Any reports of a police raid are false … We do not have an office in Shanghai.” But it later told The Block the term “office” is subjective and doesn’t apply to the workspace it had in Shanghai.

“Raid” is also subjective. It carries a connotation of police in tactical gear ripping up a place. The Block may have realized “raid” was too strong, and switched to calling it a police “visit.”

In public statements, Binance did not dispute the core of the report: There was a place in Shanghai where the exchange’s people worked. There was an interaction with police. The place is now no more.

Binance’s denial was a non-denial denial, which its founder Changpeng Zhao has done in the past. (See denial versus news article.)

The Block could have done better. But that does not make Binance the good guy.

Bitcoin could be in for a minor bump to $7,500 levels before a bigger drop, technical analysis suggests. Bitcoin is at $7,000 (C$9,310) as of noon Sunday, Eastern Time, down about 15 per cent for the week.

Canada: the shady past of Quadriga’s Gerald Cotten

As a teenager, Gerald Cotten was selling get-rich-quick schemes on online forums, as revealed in long reads from the Globe and Mail and Vanity Fair. Cotton is the late founder of the Vancouver cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, which collapsed after his death, owing more than C$200 million. The Vanity Fair piece has an extra revelation: a witness says Canadian and American police “asked me about 20 times” if Cotten was alive,” saying “it’s an open question.”

The publicly traded mining company Bitfarms, of Toronto, has lost staff including its president, and locals near its Quebec sites are complaining about the noise.

News: Bitcoin ETF (again); I talk to Gizmodo

Bitwise’s U.S. Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF), a mainstream investment vehicle, is getting a second review after being rejected by the authorities. An ETF is expected to boost prices.

I talked to Gizmodo about cryptocurrency mining and its environmental impact.