Following the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Nouriel Roubini has entered the debate, describing the cryptocurrency ecosystem as, “totally corrupt” and calling its big players “con men.”
On Wednesday, speaking at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, he called out Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, specifically, calling for regulators to subject him to careful scrutiny
In his statements as part of a CNBC panel, he cited the, “seven Cs of crypto: Concealed, corrupt, crooks, criminals, con men, carnival barkers, and finally, CZ.” He added, “The lesson of the last few weeks is these people should be out of here.”
Following the sudden collapse of the FTX exchange, the crypto markets have been undergoing a period of turbulence. According to reports, FTX now has over 100,000 creditors with liabilities of $10 billion to $50 billion. Even as the exchange was moving into bankruptcy, millions of dollars of crypto was continuing to be drained from FTX wallets over the weekend, adding to the negative perceptions of the industry.
Binance had agreed in principle to acquire FTX and its liabilities, however after finding misuse of customer accounts, and believing there would be considerable regulator and criminal investigative activity, the deal fell through. There are reports FTX’s CEO had improperly used customer funds from FTX to cover loans that were called at his trading platform, Alameda.
For his part, Roubini indicates he feels Binance is not too different from FTX.
Roubini noted, “I can’t believe that CZ and Binance have a license to operate in the UAE. He’s banned in the UK, he’s under investigation by the US Justice Department for money laundering.”
The UK had banned Binance in late June, while it was forced to limit its services in Singapore by regulators there. In the US, the spinoff company through which it operates, Binance US, has been under scrutiny since May.
Roubini first gained prominence for accurately predicting the financial crisis of 2008-2009, an accomplishment which earned him the nickname “Doctor Doom” on Wall Street. When he is not making prognostications, he is a New York University professor and chief executive of Roubini Macro Associates.
