Mannn, I'm trying to be responsible here and quit these risky Bitcoin buying opportunities and then this happens: Bitcoin, BNB slide as Binance CEO resigns, pleads guilty to DOJ charges.

So now you know what CZ will do, now you know that Binance unlike FTX will carry on, you even know my personal dilemma, but here's what you probably missed. Take a close look at the details the DOJ presented regarding Binance/CZ's "criminal activity". Let's start off with something more general: “Using new technology to break the law does not make you a disruptor, it makes you a criminal, said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland." Wow, big words there coming from a "man" who's country used its technological advantage and broke numerous moral boundaries and UN charters against even their own so called allies.

"As part of the settlement agreement, the U.S. Treasury said Binance will be subject to five years of monitoring and significant compliance undertakings, including to ensure Binance’s complete exit from the United States.” This part here is crucial, it will make you ask what's in it then for Binance or CZ to come to this agreement if they have to cease all US operations anyway? Binance's continuation in US allied nations that's what. Yeah, those same allies who are being spied on and pushed around like bully victims on the playground would eventually have banned Binance from their country as well if CZ did not come to an agreement, whether Binance already acquired a license there or not would be entirely irrelevant.

Think I'm exaggerating? In 2018 the US withdrew from a multilateral agreement between between Iran, EU, China and Russia dubbed the P5+1 nuclear deal. This agreement took a decade of negotiations before it was eventually reached and finally signed in 2015 after which European and Iranian firms started doing business again. But you know what European businesses did after 2018 even though their own country, their own government was a signatory to the agreement and rejected US threats against abiding by the nuclear deal? They all quit. They literally abandoned or canceled any plans and investments they made since 2015 because not doing so would expose them to a danger their own government could not protect them from. The irony is that EU nations even set up a 'banking Monero' if you will, a system they called INSTEX that would allow trade and financial ties with Iran without worries of US sanctions. It only processed ONE transaction and was recently officially cancelled.

Note the propaganda and shameless twisting of facts by the European nations in the above link btw: "the 10 shareholders of INSTEX — Belgium, Germany, Finland, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. — concluded that there was no basis to keep it going after Iran persistently refused to work with the institution." Ohhh, so the problem started after Iran refused cooperation. The fact that it only ever processed one transaction, ONE SINGLE transaction from 10 European countries in four years time had nothing to do with it right? Which bring us back to Binance: The same way European businesses didn't dare to touch INSTEX despite their own government approval would be the same way European banks and businesses would not touch Binance had this deal not been made. And keep in mind, Binance has less support in West Europe than the Iran deal had, many would be glad to abide by US sanctions against them.

Moving on: "U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Binance processed transitions by illicit actors, supporting activities from child sexual abuse, to illegal narcotics, to terrorism, across more than 100,000 transactions.” I honestly can't phantom how the DOJ of Epstein-nation dares to talk "child sexual abuse" without ever indicting nor even ever naming a single name on that list.

You know what, the hell with their hypocrisy. We could waste hours examining everything that's wrong here, let's focus on why Binance will still lose in the end, playing a rigged game has that effect. Remember that EU-Iran example? You know what the other countries did as the US threatened sanctions after unilaterally withdrawing from the agreement? They didn't give a fluke. Yes some Russian and Chinese businesses got sanctioned back in 2018/9, but if you'd paid close attention these past two years you'd know that that would have eventually happened anyway regardless. Whether it was because of "the Ukraine war" or "China's chip ban restrictions" or whatever excuse. We actually covered something similar before and I guess the conclusion is the same: You can't reason with totalitarianism, one day sooner or later it will come for you regardless the concessions you make today. CZ now learned that the hard way and it seems all of Binance will too despite already abiding on so many levels these past few years.

I know I wrote "the end of the saga" in the title but you can bet your last Sat it will not end here and the saddest part is this is exactly what crypto should be fighting against, not making concessions to in order to maintain some central figure/exchange's profits, and with this we touched upon the core problem: Centralization.

I remember saying something like this before, for crypto platforms, contracts, apps, codes (etc) to truly thrive, we need more Satoshi Nakamotos. We need people selfless and courageous enough to step up and help build these things and then disappear, leaving future developments/decisions onto the community. Not someone who steps into the public or worse is taking CEO roles and sitting in his multi-million Dollar office within reach of the authorities. I'm not a maxi, but this is the core reason I favor Bitcoin over whatever other billions of cryptos out there. Crypto is a threat to the global monetary status quo, but only if it can function in a decentralized manner and free from extortion by those seeking to maintain that status. If it can't then that crypto immediately becomes a liability and will contribute as much to the core criteria of Bitcoin (i.e. peer-to-peer trustless free flow of electronic cash) the same way CBDCs will do: Nada!