It should be noted that cases of insider trading in the cryptocurrency world occur from time to time. Here we are talking about buying cryptoassets before some important event, which should positively affect their value. Naturally, this is done at the expense of knowledge not available to others, making this activity illegal.

In January 2023, Conor Grogan of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase published data that hinted at the possibility of insider trading among Binance employees. However, a similar thing was happening in the summer of 2021, meaning the events were not particularly relevant.

Much more serious were the recent rumors that the head of Binance Changpen Zhao is allegedly wanted by Interpol. The information turned out to be fake, but representatives of the blockchain community had time to react to it. Zhao was clearly unhappy with the situation, which is clear from his remarks on Twitter.

Here is the most recent one.

First they write “news” about possible rumours. Then they write “news” that the rumours were false.

People prefer to lose credibility in exchange for a few clicks

What’s being punished in the cryptocurrency industry

Ishan and Nikhil were arrested back in July last year when they were trying to fly to India. Both brothers later pleaded guilty to criminal charges of insider trading. According to an April 3 statement, the SEC was in “good faith negotiations” with Nikhil, who was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment in January.

Regarding the agreement itself, the Commission’s spokesman left the following comment. The spokesperson’s remarks are quoted by Cointelegraph.

Any settlement recommended by the Commission’s staff must be reviewed by the Commission and approved by the commissioners before it can be submitted to the court for approval. This process could take several weeks.

The case against the Wahi brothers was one of the first involving insider trading at a major US crypto exchange even before the FTX bankruptcy. The original lawsuit alleged that Ishan had access to information about cryptocurrency listings on the Coinbase platform while serving as product manager from August 2021 to May 2022. He then passed this information on to his brother or Rama to invest in the coins before the Coinbase listing was due to cause a price spike.


Listings of projects on major cryptocurrency exchanges do lead to an increase in their value - at least in the short term. The fact is that popular cryptocurrency exchanges value their reputations, so they conduct thorough research on each project they add. Accordingly, the appearance of a novelty on a major platform like Binance or Coinbase means that the representatives of the latter have studied the company and come to positive conclusions about what is happening.

In addition, it is important to understand that the appearance of a token on a major exchange provides the significant trading volumes that are necessary for the asset's value to rise noticeably.


That said, Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange representatives have chosen to focus on the positive attributes of cryptocurrencies rather than insider trading cases. In a recent publication on its official blog, Coinbase staff outlined how cryptocurrencies could reduce the cost of fees for payments in the US by as much as 97 per cent.


According to the exchange's research, "the average commission rate in the US for sending funds is 6.18 percent. Americans on average spend about $12 billion a year on remittance fees. The average completion time for remittances is one to ten days, while similar transactions in crypto typically take a few seconds or minutes.

It is also important to understand that in some blockchain networks, the cost to complete a transaction is less than a penny. For example, right now the equivalent of about $0.000105 would have to be paid to send an SOL on the Solana network. This means that one cent is enough for 95 transactions.


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At the same time, Bitcoin’s transaction fee averages around $1.50 and Ether’s around $0.75. And even such fees are potentially much lower than traditional remittance fees, which, according to the World Bank, average 6.3 per cent of the amount sent.

Unfortunately, the use of crypto in domestic and international settlements on a global scale is not yet possible due to the low popularity of the instrument in the context of various institutions. At the same time, Bitcoin has already become legal tender in El Salvador. However, even there, BTC is paid in the same way as the national currency, not instead of it.


This case, which has become the first confirmed case of insider trading in cryptocurrencies, seems to be coming to an end. This outcome would make it clear that digital assets are no longer the "Wild West" that they were a few years ago. And there will be consequences for breaking the law with them.