According to an article published on hket.com, Chanpeng Zhao, mostly known as CZ in the community, went to court in Hong Kong today to sue Bloomberg Businessweek and its Chinese publishing partner “Modern Media” for defamation.
CZ claims that an article published by Bloomberg Businessweek on the 6th of July 2022 made false allegations against him. The article and related social media posts were dubbed “Zhao Changpeng’s Ponzi Scheme”.
In response to the article, which CZ said made him feel “distressed and embarrassed”, the Binance CEO is demanding compensation from Bloomberg and Modern Media on the basis of defamation.
According to the source, CZ is asking for the defamatory statements to be withdrawn, as well as an official apology.
Given that the term “Ponzi Scheme” implies illegal activities and running a Madoff-style Ponzi Scheme poses a serious criminal offense, it’s no surprise that the CEO of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange is trying to set the record straight.
A while ago the Terra stablecoin and its counterpart Luna collapsed. Do Kwon, one of the creators of UST and Luna, is now being investigated. Earlier this year, the South Korean authorities were reportedly looking into whether they had enough grounds to make a case against Do Kwon for running a Ponzi Scheme.
The word “Ponzi” is often thrown around without much thought. Bitcoin has been called a “Ponzi Scheme” countless times by the mainstream media and critics. These claims have been debunked a long time ago, including more recently by Lyn Alden.
However, some projects in the “crypto” space might indeed meet the criteria of a Ponzi Scheme or at least of an unregistered security.
Given the sensitivity of these topics, it’s always important to think twice about what claims to make, especially when making statements about the owner of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
