Inside Binance’s Guilty Plea and the Biggest Fine in Crypto History

The king of crypto’s largest outlaw empire told employees for years that he would never turn himself in. But on Tuesday, a jittery Changpeng Zhao showed up in a Seattle federal court to plead guilty to violating U.S. money-laundering rules.

“I’ve not caused problems before, I’ve never been a criminal. And I’ve never been into a courthouse before. So this is new to me,” Zhao told a judge.