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This week in the crypto world, we saw Microsoft and Amazon tackle Bitcoin investment, Operation Chokepoint 2.0 confirmed, and Binance report a record year.
Amazon Says Maybe to Bitcoin; Microsoft Says No
Microsoft’s shareholders this week voted against a proposal to incorporate Bitcoin into the company’s financial holdings despite the entreaties of Michael Saylor. The board had previously recommended rejecting the proposal due to the cryptocurrency’s inherent volatility, and members followed through with this recommendation; just 0.5% voted in favour of the move.
Better news might be on the horizon, however, as Amazon shareholders voted to examine the possibility of doing the same. As one door closes…
Operation Chokepoint 2.0 Was Real
Operation Chokepoint 2.0 US was this week confirmed as more than just a conspiracy theory, as documents obtained by Coinbase confirmed. The filings show how federal agencies systematically worked to cut off banking services to cryptocurrency firms in the US, confirming longstanding suspicions within the industry.
The existence of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 has long been mooted but, until now, it was only backed up with anecdotal evidence. However, the documents show US authorities asking various US banks to “pause all crypto asset-related activity.”
Binance Enjoys Record Year
This time last year, it seemed that Binance was doomed. The exchange, the most used globally since its emergence in 2017, was in the middle of about a hundred investigations from authorities all across the universe while CEO Changpeng Zhao was awaiting a sentence possibly totaling years. Regulators were trying their darndest to cripple the company, and with others hot on its heels, it seemed doomed.
Fast forward a year, and not only is Zhao a free man after serving just four months, but Binance enjoyed a record $21.6 billion in user fund deposits in 2024, far outpacing the next ten exchanges combined. The company has also been settling its issues with regulators in an attempt to wipe the slate clean through Zhao’s replacement, Richard Teng, which has seen it cement its place as the world’s top exchange again.
Astounding.
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Mark Hunter