As regulatory scrutiny on the crypto industry continues to increase, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao or CZ has said he is taking matters into his own hands.
In this regard, CZ comments in an interview:
“Binance is often looked at first as it is a large player in the sector. Although it doesn’t give the company good PR, it allows the firm to shape the regulatory narrative in the crypto space”.
Binance is the first centralized crypto exchange due to a number of factors, such as trading volume, liquidity, number of weekly visitors, as well as the large offering of crypto pairs and other services it provides.
In the interview, CZ refers to the event that happened last week, in which the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reportedly placed Binance.com’s website on its Investor Alert List.
This concerns the inclusion of only the Binance.com platform and not that of Binance.sg, as the former is said to offer a number of services not regulated by the authority.
Indeed, Binance Singapore would be more local, with its own executive and management team.
Of course the MAS news, comes coincidentally after Binance hired Richard Teng, the former chief regulator of the Singapore Stock Exchange, as CEO of Binance Singapore. Teng reportedly also worked for MASE for 13 years as director of corporate finance.
Binance and diversifying services to comply with country regulations
In the interview, CZ explains how he would be working to diversify the services he offers based on the country the user is in, so as to be compliant with that country’s regulations.
“We have limited some products in some countries. For example, we have limited the Futures offering in the UK, Italy and Germany.”
Not only that, CZ talks about Binance’s leadership in this market, looking at both sides of the coin.
On the one hand, it would be the first to be under the radar of governments (as in the case of Singapore), but on the other hand, it could also be the first crypto platform to be able to work directly with government bodies and take initiatives on countries’ laws, since crypto assets are not regulated.
In this sense, CZ talks about:
“Binance being ready to assist regulators from around the world”.
Binance and countries: the latest accusations against the first crypto exchange
That of Singapore is just the latest in a continuing series of issues that Binance has been dealing with countries since its inception.
In the past month alone, Binance has seen countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and South Africa weigh in on its operations, receiving accusations of irregularities, often unfounded.
In the case of the Central Bank of the Netherlands, following that of the Italian Consob the previous month, it was an official warning against Binance from De Nederlandsche Banck (DNB) accusing Binance of providing crypto services in the country without the required registration with DNB.
As such, Binance was not compliant with AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and anti-terrorist financing regulations.
As for the UK, Binance has almost resolved its issues with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to comply with all requirements and operate Binance Markets Limited in full compliance.
In South Africa, it has dismissed all accusations by the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority that allegedly accused Binance Group’s platform of not being authorized to provide financial services to the country. For Binance, in fact, there is no connection between it and Binance Group.
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