A seat at the table
CZ (CEO of Binance) has been on the move lately. His enthusiasm for crypto and savvy business tactics make him a powerful force both in the emerging tech space and in traditional finance. Besides being worth more than an estimated $100 Billion, which makes him among the top 20 richest people on the planet, he seems to be as hungry as ever. Which makes you wonder- what is he after?
He's clearly free to do what he wants in the free market, but considering how hectic the macro landscape has been in the past few years (politically, economically, scientifically, inter-personally), it's good to take a step back and breathe once in a while. And naturally the question arises, where is crypto headed?
A few things that recently caught my eye:
BUSD
CZ claims BUSD, or Binance USD, actually has very little to do with his company. All reporting, issuance, compliance etc. is entirely at the discretion of
Paxos. Binance simply supplies the branding in the partnership. The interview is quite revealing in showing how little CZ seems to be monitoring the stablecoin he is in partnership with which, again, is named after his company. Tether? A black box.
Binance USD? He wouldn't be able to tell you anything other than "you can trust it." For more information you'll have to speak to Paxos if you hope to get any answer...
Forbes
Binance has invested $200 Million in Forbes before their planned SPAC to become publicly listed. This would make Binance one of the top 2 holders of the platform, along with Integrated Whale Media (from Hong-Kong), who bought roughly 95% of the company in 2014. CZ also tweeted to clarify that part of the investment "is to help them build Web3 infrastructure in the coming years."
Maybe I'm old school, but experience tells me that if you provide a service then you should be getting paid, not be the one paying. This would only make sense if Binance can see see clear long term advantage of being both an investor and service provider for a century old US publishing company.
And despite this impressive feat, CZ claims he was totally hands-off, that his team was totally in charge of the partnership.
Promotion
Here he's congratulating TheMoonCarl for his appearance on FOX business, discussing #BTC and other crypto related news. I don't like to label explicitly, but TheMoonCarl's "investments" have been questionable at best. He seems to be among the ever growing group of social media influencers who make money through undisclosed marketing deals, private-sales, referrals, closed door negotiations etc. ZachXBT has documented information on these types of influencers and TheMoonCarl made the Top 10 list!
What does CZ have to do with this? Not much. But the CEO of one of the largest CEX's and among the most influential crypto personalities today sending a congratulatory tweet isn't exactly insignificant. CZ has power, and giving even more credibility to influencers who promote crypto in any way they can isn't a great look. Carl claims he's invested in over 350 projects over 24 months, that's nearly one every two days. I doubt he's doing the proper due diligence on those projects, but you can be sure he'll be telling his followers about them. It's probably not a coincidence that many of these coins are relatively new and low cap, with Binance being among the biggest exchanges offering access to these coins and leverage to speculate on them.
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CZ and his company have a lot of influence over crypto. This article is just the tip of the iceberg, but already it can give you an idea of how the lines between things like crypto, modern finance, social influence and governance continue to blur as the prospect of making so much money and being a part of this new digital age continues to draw people in.
When CZ says that he trusts a stablecoin issuer that he lends his branding to, or that his company closes deals worth $100's of millions of dollars without his direct oversight, is he just being humble? How much influence does he have? How much influence do people who are at the company have? How much influence do people who are not at the company have?
In a space dominant by buzzwords like "decentralisation" and "permissionlessness", there are certain players with a great amount of power and control. You may trust them, but should you?
The title of this article is "a seat at the table." I think that here, as is often the case throughout history, people are looking to get their seat at the table. There is an unspoken understanding that certain people/groups command much more leverage than others (politicians, business moguls, famous personalities, etc.) and many in crypto are looking to capitalize on that opportunity. When a shift like this occurs, new money tries to replace old money. Getting a seat at the table is lucrative; it means more money, more connections, more access, more power.
I urge everyone to stay safe. We should be asking tough questions. We should be properly weighing our options and maybe missing an opportunity or two so that we make good decisions. Crypto isn't just about finance. Our actions now will have long term effects, for our future and for those that will come after us.
