Instead, this is likely just another significant blow to crypto’s reputation. Evidence suggests there is at least one informant at Binance, who passed private communications and self-destructing Signal messages to the commodities watchdog. Those messages paint a portrait of Binance – with Zhao at the helm – as a business that would sacrifice rules for the sake of growth. Large traders were privileged with faster settlement connections and lower fees – putting them above retail investors. And, if the CFTC is to be believed, Binance traded against its customers, which seems to be a trend at crypto exchanges.