No crypto company is under more pressure than the giant exchange Binance, which is facing government investigations on several fronts, as well as rising concerns about its financial stability and lack of cooperation with regulators. This month, the exchange’s chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, moved to associate Binance with a more attractive trend. He unveiled Bicasso, a product that uses A.I. technology to make artwork in the form of nonfungible tokens, the digital collectibles known as NFTs.
“You can turn your creative visions into NFTs with AI,” Mr. Zhao wrote on Twitter. “Give it a try and show me what you make with it.”
The Aftermath of FTX’s Downfall
The spectacular collapse of the crypto exchange in November has left the industry stunned.
- Jane Street Capital: The collapse of FTX has drawn attention to the little-known Wall Street firm where Sam Bankman-Fried started his career. He was drawn there because of his interest in “effective altruism.”
- Gaming Markets?: Since FTX imploded, Mr. Bankman-Fried denied accusations that he manipulated markets for his companies’ benefit. Cryptocurrency investors disagree.
- Bail Terms: A federal judge overseeing Mr. Bankman-Fried’s case has signaled a willingness to jail the disgraced executive for his persistent testing of his confinement’s boundaries.
- Legal Counsel: A judge allowed the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to continue advising FTX on bankruptcy, after critics complained of a potential conflict of interest between the firm and the exchange.
In recent months, he and other industry figures have also posted videos on social media seemingly designed to separate themselves from erstwhile crypto heroes like Mr. Bankman-Fried.
“Honor isn’t given,” Mr. Zhao somberly declared in one post. “It’s earned.” In another widely shared video, Jesse Powell, the founder of the Kraken crypto exchange, threw a few awkward jabs at a punching bag labeled “corruption” and “shady players.”
A similar distancing effort was underway in March at ETH Denver, a conference for advocates of Ethereum, the popular crypto platform. In the bathrooms, guests had the option to use toilet paper featuring a Che Guevara-style image of Mr. Bankman-Fried. At the opening event, Jonathan Mann, a songwriter who specializes in crypto-themed lyrics, performed an expletive-heavy anthem denouncing 2022’s crypto villains.
“It was supposed to be a final letting go of all this toxicity and bad vibes and feelings of 2022,” Mr. Mann said in an interview. “I had everyone do breathing exercises before: ‘Close your eyes. Deep breath in, deep breath out. We’re going to cleanse ourselves.’”
Even in 2023, a crypto conference can still attract high-powered guests. While Mr. Mann and four other singers performed, the governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, watched from the sidelines. “He had a grin on his face,” Mr. Mann said. (A spokeswoman for the governor, Melissa Dworkin, said she “wouldn’t misinterpret his curious demeanor as an endorsement of the words used.”)
