With all that people talk about it, it's hard to believe that criminal charges haven't been brought against Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, but they really haven't, Brady writes.

Why it matters: The consensus among the U.S. ink-slinging class has been that it's "just a matter of when" a giant criminal complaint will be brought against the firm and its CEO, Chengpang Zhao (mostly known as CZ).

• Still, we wait.

Driving the news: The New York Times reported that the company and its founder have hired high-powered defense lawyers from Latham & Watkins.

• The company declined to provide further comment to Axios.

Ticktock, ticktock: Binance has had questions swirling around it going all the way back to 2018, the first year its founder showed up on CoinDesk's annual "Most Influential" list.

• That year, the New York attorney general put Binance on a list of exchanges it believed were vulnerable to market manipulation.

Zoom in: One of the most controversial moments came in 2019 when The Block reported that Binance offices in Shanghai had shut down, maybe, possibly because of some kind of acute law enforcement activity.

• Shortly thereafter, the blockchain surveillance firm Chainalysis reported that Binance was one of the top two exchanges for depositing illicitly gotten crypto assets.
• In 2020, Forbes got hold of what's been called the "Tai Chi document," because it describes a corporate structure designed to overcome by yielding, even noting that Binance US was created without any expectation it would ever gain regulatory consideration here.
• Binance sued Forbes over the story but dropped the suit three months later. Then it made a huge investment in the company in a SPAC deal, but that deal fell apart.
• Also in 2020, Coinbase left the Blockchain Association, a D.C. lobbying group, shortly after Binance US joined the organization.

All along, questions have swirled around where the company is headquartered. Or, at least, where is it legally domiciled.

The intrigue: The slowly simmering questions got more heated in 2022, when Bloomberg put out a cover story on increasing legal scrutiny of the firm.

• By that point, CZ had become adept at dismissing any criticism that came his company's way, while reiterating his eagerness to cooperate with regulators.
• But Reuters reported in December that officials in the Department of Justice can't come to a consensus around bringing charges.
• It began to look like the company had found a path to detente with D.C.; however, the CFTC brought a civil case earlier this year, alleging that the company wasn't trying to prevent U.S. citizens from using its financial derivatives products. CZ dismissed the complaint.
• CNBC had by then reported on how Binance staff and supporters help users evade similar rules in China.

What they're saying: Early this year, CZ told his fans on Twitter that when he tweeted "4" or showed himself in a photo with four fingers up, it means "Ignore FUD." That is, dismiss the criticism.

The latest: Its U.S. subsidiary just backed out of buying crypto lender Voyager, likely because regulators weren't crazy about the arrangement, and it appears to have quietly lifted restrictions on Russian users.

There's a disconnect between the narrative around Binance and the market take on it, Brady writes.

• All you have to do is look at the price for its native token, BNB. Sure, it took a hit yesterday as the New York Times brought scrutiny to the firm, but it's not so bad.

Of note: Billions of dollars worth of crypto have left Binance this year, but there's been no sign yet of its treasury coming up short.

• The same thing happened at the end of 2022.

By the numbers: The company has said it has 128 million users. CoinGecko ranks it as the biggest exchange, easily.

Zoom out: BNB is only down about 20% from just before the Terra collapse in May. Bitcoin is down about 30% over the same period.

• It's a big world out there and the displeasure of the U.S. government has not yet been enough to sink an entity built to serve the whole world.

You know what scares bitcoiners? The collectible card game, Magic the Gathering, Brady writes.

Driving the news: Yesterday the bitcoin market tanked 7% in under an hour because an alert went out that the assets of an old and bankrupt website for trading gaming cards had shown signs of life.

• OK, that's a slight misrepresentation of the facts.

Context: One of the most byzantine tales in crypto history is that of Japan-based Magic The Gathering Online Exchange.

• Founded by Jed McCaleb for trading gaming cards, it pivoted into becoming Mt. Gox, which was, for a while, the biggest bitcoin exchange in the world.

Catch up fast: In June 2011 the exchange suffered its first in a series of hacks that would result in the loss of piles and piles of bitcoins, worth nearly $500 million at the time.

• In 2014, the company declared bankruptcy.
• Nine years later, the process is ongoing and the remains of Mt. Gox still hold 142,000 bitcoin which — someday — will be distributed to the many people who still have a claim on the defunct company.

Obviously, people expect a lot of sales to happen at that point. At spot prices today, that's $4 billion or so in bitcoin, but there's no way they will fetch that much on the open market.

What's happening: Yesterday, a blockchain analytics firm, Arkham, sent out alerts that bitcoins in Mt. Gox wallets were moving, potentially a sign that the disbursements could be really close.

• Some literal fear, uncertainty and doubt kicked in, which extended all the way within Arkham itself. They finally determined the reports were correct, however.

Be smart: Nearly $2,000 fell off the price of bitcoin, and it's regained about half of that.

• Quick take: It will be worse when the bitcoins really move, but it will also be ephemeral. Four billion dollars is a lot — but it's also not that much in the grand scheme of things (and not everyone will sell).

The bottom line: One way or another, the Mt. Gox distribution is coming. And that will be a lot of fresh bitcoin hitting the market.

• When that day comes, it won't be great for traders with short time horizons.

🦑 Kraken calls out the IRS for engaging in a "treasure hunt." (Bloomberg)

💪 All time trading volume on Uniswap has broken $1.5 trillion. (Blockworks)

💨 Crusoe Energy launched a pilot for bitcoin mining with waste gas. (CoinDesk)

This will probably be the last time we deal directly with the question of how much ethers will be staked to secure Ethereum, unless something very surprising happens, Brady writes.

• This result is what always made sense to happen, it just happened super fast.

Flashback: Ethereum completed its latest set of upgrades on April 12, which allowed ETH locked into the network to be released. (Yes, people who committed to ETH security had to do so with no certainty about when they could get it back out again. It sounds crazy.)

• As the second-biggest blockchain in the crypto world, there wasn't much chance that the stake would evaporate.

Context: Lots of other chains have been staking from the start, and they generally have more than 50% of their market cap dedicated to securing it. (Check it out here.)

• Ethereum is at less than 15%. It may not go as high as the others, but the safe bet was always that it would go higher as soon as staking became something an investor could come in and out of.