Binance’s token gains after report of US seeking settlement

BNB, the cryptocurrency at the heart of the Binance exchange ecosystem, rose as much as 8.5% on optimism that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange may be putting some its regulatory issues behind it.

The US Justice Department is seeking more than $4 billion from Binance Holdings Ltd. as part of a proposed resolution of a years-long investigation, Bloomberg News reported. Negotiations between the Justice Department and Binance include the possibility that its founder Changpeng Zhao would face criminal charges in the US under an agreement to resolve the probe into alleged money laundering, bank fraud and sanctions violations, according to people familiar with the discussions.

“I would say it’s a relatively bullish event as it lifts a lot of uncertainty overhang which has been hanging over the market and is not a worst case scenario and doesn’t impact market in a disorderly way directly,” said Shiliang Tang, co-founder of crypto principal trading firm Arbelos Markets.

BNB is the native token of the Binance exchange as well as BNB Chain, a blockchain Binance started. It rose to as high as $266.42.

Bitcoin also gained after the disclosure of the possible resolution. The largest cryptocurrency traded at the highest levels of the day, gaining as much as 2.1% to $37,768.