In a recent development, ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has transferred 400 ETH to the Kraken exchange.
The transaction, which took place on June 5, 2023, was completed within 30 seconds and was worth approximately $723,000. The move comes amid controversy surrounding Binance and the issues surrounding Kraken’s funding gateway.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently filed 13 counts against Binance, accusing the exchange of operating as an unregistered securities exchange and engaging in illegal activities within the United States.
The SEC claims that Binance illegally required US customers to trade assets on unregistered platforms. Furthermore, the regulator claims that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and the exchange itself were directly involved in the operations of Binance.US, contrary to previous allegations made by the defendants.
This controversy raised questions about the sudden departure of former Binance exchange Brian Brooks in August 2021, just three months into his tenure.
Brooks allegedly realized he had no effective control over the company, which led him to step down and publicly announce his resignation. Binance’s chief communications officer, Patrick Hellman, disputed the speculation, noting that it may represent the subjective perspective of one individual and may not stand up to scrutiny over time.
Meanwhile, Kraken, a beneficiary of Buterin’s recent transaction, has had issues with several cryptocurrency funding gateways, including Bitcoin (BTC), ETH, and Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens.
These issues caused deposit and withdrawal delays. The root cause of the problem has not been revealed by the exchange, but the team is said to be working hard on a solution.
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Kraken is also dealing with its own legal challenges.
Earlier this year, the exchange agreed to a $30 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that the betting service was selling illegal securities. Additionally, Kraken is challenging Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requests for user data, claiming that such requests constitute unwarranted intrusions.
