Coinbase has been able to absorb the market share with a futures trading feature for non-U.S. users, now leading the global trading volume, amidst recent developments in the sector. Bringing up the fact that the majority of the trading volume is from the US, the SEC approved spot ETF without requiring a Surveillance Sharing Agreement (SSA). Ki Young Ju, CEO of the on-chain analytics company CryptoQuant shared an X post, providing insights on the matter.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, lost its market share to Coinbase due to the recent turmoil around it. The founder and CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, an act that requires financial institutions to enforce certain measures that can prevent money laundering. Zhao agreed on a historic settlement deal of $4.3 billion and a personal payout of $50 million.
The prosecutors gave a detailed report about Binance’s breach of anti-money laundering and sanction laws and its failure to report over 100,000 suspicious transactions involving terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and Hamas. Merrick Garland, a U.S. Attorney General said in a statement, “Using new technology to break the law does not make you a disruptor, it makes you a criminal.”
The fallout of allegations like diverting customer funds and mixing billions of dollars in customer funds with their own forced Zhao to resign from the post of CEO. Richard Teng has become the new CEO of Binance thanks to his extensive experience in finance and crypto. Within 15 months, Binance needs to pay $1.81 billion, and the remaining $2.51 will be forfeiture as part of the deal.
With respect to the settlement, special monitors will be appointed for three and five-year terms and will have powers to oversee Binance’s business practices. This includes how it adds new customers and how it interacts with the jurisdictions that are subject to various sanctions.
Due to the regulatory pressure on Binance, Coinbase was able to use a futures trading feature for non-U.S. users as a means to absorb market share. With the increase in market share, Coinbase now leads in global trading volume. It has a trading volume of $1,965,456,437 in the last 24 hours and $507,929,984,775 in the last 7 days.
Under normal conditions, getting approval for spot ETF requires a Surveillance Sharing Agreement(SSA). However, this time, the SEC approved spot ETF for Coinbase without the need for SSA due to most trading volume originating from the U.S.
In regard to spot ETF trading, surveillance-sharing agreements refer to deals between market surveillance providers and cryptocurrency exchanges. The aim of these deals is to enhance the transparency and integrity of the crypto market by sharing data and information. Since cryptocurrencies are outside of traditional financial regulations, SSA can help examine issues related to insider trading, market manipulation, and other illegal activities.
Under these agreements, there is a possibility for crypto exchanges to share book information, trade data, and other data related to the market with regulatory bodies. The prime duty of these bodies is to monitor data and identify anomalies to ensure all transactions are under laws and regulations.
