🩸 “Pay‐to‐Play" on $BNB Street

$45M BNB Airdrop Starts THIS WEEK

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Today (Oct 15th), the crypto market dipped hard: $BTC.X ( ▼ 1.75% ) down 2%, hovering around $112,600. Major altcoins like $ETH.X ( ▼ 2.35% ) , $XRP.X ( ▲ 2.94% ) , $BNB.X ( ▲ 0.51% ) also dropped 2–5%.

Trump clearly wants a deal but he’s not backing down at all. Global tension + Trump’s comeback + red candles = 🔻

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Here’s what we got for you today:

  • 👀 Top 12 market makers & manipulation tactics

  • ⭐ The darkest story crypto’s ever seen

  • ⭐ Binance’s accused of 8% token demand

  • 🔥 Burning hot takes for the road

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WHY ALTS ARE FLAT RIGHT NOW!?

Everyone’s waiting for alt season (even me and my port 😥) but it’s not happening. Why? We just dropped a quick breakdown in Telegram.

Here’s a peek, whales already rotated bags into… You won’t find it here. As always, we’re keeping this one Telegram-only, no leaks. Only takes one scroll to see the setup. Don’t miss it.

⚠️ The real insight is what needs to happen next and who might trigger it.

And also yesterday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke, he got the market freeze in seconds. One sentence shifted how we see Q4 2025. If you wanna go deeper into how the Fed, inflation quietly decide your next crypto move, keep reading.

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💀 U.S. SEIZES $14B IN BTC IN SLAVE-LABOR EMPIRE

The U.S. just made the biggest crypto bust ever, we’re talking $14 BILLION worth of BTC taken from a dude who ran a global scam ring… using slave labor.

There’s this guy, Chen Zhi, who pretended to be a flashy young billionaire. In reality? He was running a massive crime network that:

  • Scammed people worldwide with fake crypto investments

  • Used slave labor to power scam call centers

  • Laundered money through fake businesses, real estate, tourism, even Bitcoin mining

  • Operated out of Cambodia, under something called the Prince Group

Turns out… Zhi kept 127,271 BTC (~$14B) in his own wallet. Bad move. Once the feds cracked it, it became the biggest Bitcoin seizure ever (uh, bigger than Silk Road or Bitfinex).

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List of Addresses Cited in The Court Filing

It means the U.S. gov now holds 325K BTC, worth $37B. They’re the biggest whale on Earth, without ever buying a single coin 😂

What they found next was straight-up horrifying. Zhi ran 10+ compounds in Cambodia where victims were locked up, beaten, even killed if they didn’t scam enough people…

People were trafficked into these places and sold like products ($1K–$3K per person). Some were minors. Some were tortured. At least 1 confirmed death.

It was basically a modern slavery operation hiding behind a crypto front. This became a full-blown international takedown:

  • U.S. Treasury, FinCEN, OFAC, and the U.K. froze his assets

  • Sanctioned 146 people + orgs connected to the scam

  • Shut down Huione Group - the money-laundering squad helping Zhi

  • Froze luxury homes in London like a $95M office building and a $12M villa

They literally wiped his empire off the map. These scams stole BILLIONS from Americans. No one is safe.

Even crypto researchers (like TRM Labs and Elliptic) think part of the Bitcoin might’ve come from the LuBian mining pool hack in 2020. So Zhi might’ve been laundering stolen BTC too.

This is the darkest story crypto we’ve ever seen & read. And seriously, don’t ever trust a “billionaire” who shows off too much 😐

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Business news as it should be.

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Each morning, it breaks down the biggest stories in business, tech, and finance with a touch of wit to keep things smart and interesting.

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😐 BINANCE ACCUSED OF 8% TOKEN FOR LISTING

Why Binance keeps stealing our headline in the hot seat 🙂

It all started when CJ Hetherington, CEO of Limitless Labs (a prediction market & AI startup backed by Coinbase Ventures and Base Ecosystem Fund) posted on X that Binance allegedly demanded:

  • 8% of the project’s total token supply

  • Cash and token deposits to secure a listing

  • The demand came in the form of a “listing requirement package”

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Source: @cjhtech

That post sparked an immediate reaction, not just from the community, but from Binance itself, which quickly issued a sharp rebuttal:

→ They denied all allegations & claimed the statement was false and defamatory. They even threatened legal action against CJ for “unauthorized and unlawful” disclosure of private communications.

According to Bankless sources, the actual ask may have been even bigger:

  • 9% total token allocation, broken into:

    • Airdrop programs

    • Marketing spend

    • Incentives for BNB holders

    • Liquidity support

  • $2.25M in deposits required for spot listing

Binance maintains that It earns no profit from token listings, These deposits are refundable in 1–2 years and exist only to ensure project integrity.

No listing fees are charged. Binance leaders do not dump listed tokens, calling those claims baseless.

Other major names also weighed in:

First, Mike Dudas (founder of 6MV, ex-The Block) said he personally saw similar proposals from Binance recently, and never signed an NDA.

Next, Jesse Pollak (founder of Base) called the model exploitative, especially for early-stage startups, and pushed for zero-cost listings.

Even CZ couldn’t resist & vaguely shade CJ, called “a loser”:

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CZ in Response to CJ

On-chain data from Nansen shows over $21.75B withdrawn from CEXs in just 7 days, Binance saw the largest share of the outflow.

Maybe this Limitless drama added to investor caution, especially right after a massive market liquidation.

If these demands are real, even under the label of “marketing” or “guarantees” (who knows), it just shows how tightly Binance still controls access to liquidity.

BUT, Binance just threw $700M into PR recovery after Oct 11 crash. Are they protecting reputation… or masking a deeper issue?

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CRYPTO FOUNDATIONS: BACK & STRONGER 🔁

We’ve been seeing replies, comments, DMs everywhere lately that say the same thing like “I only know BTC… maybe ETH or SOL” or “Crypto feels too big. Too complicated”.

Nah. You're right on time and you're not alone. That’s why we’re bringing back one of our most-loved series: 🔥 Crypto Foundations for 2025 (you’ll find this tag on our main site too).

Every post includes some free cheatsheets to help you connect faster & they’ll be posted right here in the newsletter. Starting today with 2 guides:

We’re here to help you actually understand what you’re reading & trading. Because when the next bull leg hits, we want you to know exactly what you’re holding!

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🔥 BURNING HOT TAKES FOR THE ROAD

A leaked message showed that Binance might be building a prediction market. Even Yi He is excited. Read the message

BNB Chain launched a massive $45M airdrop to 160,000+ memecoin traders. If you’ve been trading memes on $BNB.X ( ▲ 0.51% ) ... Read more

After 2 years on pause, Binance may officially re-enter Korea in 2025. Korea’s FIU is giving the greenlight signs again. Read more

Monad, the most hyped layer-1 right now, airdrop checker is LIVE. $MON is trading pre-market on Hyperliquid. Read more

Backpack faces backlash after Oct 11 crash, users claim lost deposits & get KFC vouchers back!? Read more

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Hate the Game Not the Player 😂

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Next up: Table, A U Ready?

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💌 SHOUTOUT FROM OUR FIRESTARTER

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