DOJ says ex-Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao should serve three years in prison: CNBC Crypto World

DOJ says ex-Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao should serve three years in prison: CNBC Crypto World

today us prosecutors seek a three-year
prison sentence for Chang Pang Xiao
block plans to launch a full Bitcoin
mining system and the founder of
canonical crypto explains why he’s
bullish on the merging of AI and
blockchain
Technology welcome to cnbc’s crypto
world I’m TAA mck crypto prices turning
lower this morning with Bitcoin dropping
back to The $64,000 level by noon
Eastern that crypto currency was down
2.8% in the past 24 hours meanwhile
ether dipped more than 1.5% to 3173 and
salana dropped 4% to
$151 okay let’s talk about the top
stories us prosecutors are seeking a
three-year prison sentence for binance’s
former CEO Chang Pang Xiao in a
memorandum filed in Washington Federal
Court prosecutors said that CZ should
serve a sentence higher than suggested
under guidelines due to the gravity of
his crimes xia is accused of willfully
failing to implement an effective
anti-money laundering program something
that’s required by the bank secrecy act
he’s also accused of allowing binance to
process transactions tied to unlawful
activity including for individuals
skirting sanctions next Jack dorsy
payments company block is developing a
full Bitcoin mining system the company
announced yesterday that it finished the
development of a standalone 3 nanometer
Bitcoin mining chip and is now working
with a semiconductor manufacturer on
finalizing the design
block says the chip will meet mining
needs to thrive through the current
having cycle the company’s ultimate goal
is to democratize Bitcoin mining which
dorsy tweeted about in 2021 at the time
he argued that the more decentralized
mining is the more resilient the Bitcoin
Network becomes at the same time block
platforms square and cash app are also
reportedly launching the option for
merchants to convert their dollars to
bitcoin all right for our main story
while crypto and AI have competed for VC
funding dollars many believe the
combination of the two technologies
presents huge promise and after the
latest Bitcoin having some blockchain
miners are even considering a pivot to
AI using some of their existing
infrastructure crypto world’s Talia
Kaplan spoke with Anand a the founder of
canonical crypto an early stage fund
investing in crypto and web 3
infrastructure about the potential tied
to the two technologies plus he shares
his outlook for VC funding in the
space the combination of crypto and AI
has been getting a lot of Buzz recently
according to vanc crypto aai revenues
are projected to reach 10.2 billion
dollar by 2030 do you agree with that
projection uh such a great question kick
it off I I think and I was talking to
the team at vanck about this I think
that’s on the low end of where we might
end up if uh if I remember correctly
from that report they were projecting
something like 6 trillion in AI driven
productivity uh over by by 2030 and if
decentralized AI serves as the backbone
for everything that needs to get built
on top with AI I believe those numbers
are the very low end of the Spectrum in
terms of what we might expect but we’re
starting to see some really cool Tech
and infrastructure getting built so
we’re expecting to see that uh you know
we’ll expect to see that play out really
well interesting so last month okx
Ventures released a report about the
potential of crypto and Ai and the
report says the merging of the two
technologies is giving rise to new
applications and Innovations
encompassing areas like model training
AI agents metaverse gaming and robots as
a service in a nutshell what is your
outlook for crypto and Ai and do you see
a lot of potential tied to the merging
of the
Technologies absolutely uh if you look
at the progression of AI to date uh it’s
been largely driven by centralized
entities right so the amount of
innovation and horsepower whether it’s
access to data access to Talent OR
access to resources has been largely
controlled by a select few uh on the
other hand when we look at decentralized
blockchainbased networks we really
thrive on certain ethos and principles
like
decentralization um uh transparency
auditability Etc so as we look forward
while we are starting to build out the
infrastructure in a very collaborative
manner today there’s just so much need
to get built if you look at some just
like pointed use cases today right data
provenance Talia you and I are having
this conversation at some point this
data might get used to train a model how
does CNB C how do we get credit for
something like that or we look at
training of models for medical purposes
for legal purposes or for finance those
can’t be trained on public data they
need to be trained on private they you
be trained in private data and we have
Primitives for things like this in the
world of blockchain like fully
homomorphic encryption we have zero
knowledge for attestation of proofs Etc
so uh I’ll pause there but I’m really
bullish on where we can take all the
work that’s been done in the world of
blockchain Primitives and really putting
that to work when it comes to
AI so I recently interviewed the chief
scientist at chain link Labs who argued
that the often touted uses for bringing
Ai and blockchain together aren’t
actually all that useful some of what he
calls misleading narratives include that
blockchain can combat misinformation
caused by generative Ai and that
blockchain can bring privacy to AI do
you think these narratives can be
considered misleading are there any
concerns you have tied to the
convergence of AI and
crypto yeah I I look at it as a a glass
half full opportunity right I think with
the sort of the blast radius of what
we’re encountering today uh it doesn’t
feel particularly good whereas the kind
of Primitives we have in the world of
blockchain actually can serve legitimate
use cases right we have seen uh
situations where there have been
elections held in various countries and
we have been able to use certain
Primitives like zero knowledge to be
able to test to the source of certain
media types and ensuring that those
actually came from the sources that they
were that they truly actually came from
how do we put these to work at scale
right so I would say the technology is
there and it is really up to us to put
to work now and bring them to the masses
so while it’s completely fair to be
questioning these principles uh I think
what is incumbent upon us now is to
build out these products and put them to
work because you know we’ve been
building them out for quite some time
now so I I definitely appreciate the
skepticism but I’m confident that the
technolog is going to play out as we
hope it will now you are a light speeed
Venture partner and of course the
founder of canonical crypto an early
stage fund investing in crypto and web3
infrastructure so so I’m curious to get
your take on what crypto VC Trends have
been gaining traction and how much of
the VC interest is focused on the
convergence of AI and blockchain
Technology yeah uh I have been
exclusively focus on this intersection
because I feel this technology is AI is
is one of those technologies that you
know we’re not going to be we’re going
to be tell you and I in two years for
having this conversation we’re still
going to be talking about this and I I I
think it is it’s far too promising and
important for for there not to be
focused on it so that’s been my area of
focus but there’s this so much so much
more that needs to get built you know
obviously with the kind of Tailwinds
that have happening with ETFs with with
Solana hitting certain high high
thresholds lately with various upgrades
happening in the world of ethereum
there’s a lot of infrastructure that’s
getting built in and around this but
we’re also starting to see certain
consumer Trends pick up farcaster for
example which is a web3 social
networking platform is having a moment
they’re having record usage on their
platform uh proud to have been an
investor from the earliest days there um
but we start to see shoots like this
emerge whether it’s social whether it’s
gaming or true manifestations of Finance
coming to life um you know we’re
starting to see some companies you know
now that scalability we feel like we’
hit that point where we can reliably use
blockchain networks for payments we’re
starting to see trfi and and
blockchainbased finance come together so
these are some interesting areas we
starting to see developments and
Investments going into infrastructure
middleware developer tooling and at the
very top of the stack Finance gaming
social we’re starting to see Investments
full there as well so are you noticing
there’s more interest in crypto now that
Bitcoin hit a new all-time high above
$73,000 in recent weeks and spot Bitcoin
ETFs started trading here in the US have
you seen a shift in sentiment from
investors that that is definitely
provider for awesome Tailwinds for
activity from an investment perspective
coming back in which is also closely
tied to developer activity Founders
getting back into the fry and wanting to
build here as well so absolutely that’s
that’s been uh you know that’s been a
huge uh proponent for us um on the flip
side I I was reflecting on this uh you
know I uh in my career you know usually
we try to make bets that are several
years out and the the pros and cons of
operating crypto are that sometimes
anchor a lot on price and you know when
this tends to happen you know there’s
like in you es and flows that happen
with price and that’s related to our
investment Trends as well but over a
long enough time Horizon right again
we’re having this conversation five 10
years out these small episodic moments
will will feel like such small blips
relative to how much the price will have
appreciated and how grateful I think
we’ll all be that uh we were able to do
some incredible things on these you know
what feel like nent platforms today so
it is uh while a lot of it is predicated
on price today over a long enough time
frame as more developers and more
Founders come in we’re going to see some
really cool Tech being built which is
really going to work for us in the
future okay that’s all for crypto world
today we’ll be back again tomorrow and
we’ll see you then
[Music]

CNBC Crypto World features the latest news and daily trading updates from the digital currency markets and provides viewers with a look at what’s ahead with high-profile interviews, explainers, and unique stories from the ever-changing crypto industry. On today’s show, Anand Iyer, founder of Canonical Crypto, discusses the potential of merging blockchain technology and AI.

Chapters:
00:00 – CNBC Crypto World, April 24, 2024
0:23 – Bitcoin falls
0:41 – The headlines
2:27 – Anand Iyer of Canonical Crypto

For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/42d859g
» Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision
» Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC
Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide.
Connect with CNBC News Online
Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/
Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC
Follow CNBC on Threads: https://cnb.cx/threads
Follow CNBC News on X: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC

#CNBC
#CNBCTV

DOJ says ex-Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao should serve three years in prison: CNBC Crypto World