The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, announced on Friday that it does not own the India-based platform WazirX despite having disclosed the acquisition two and a half years prior. This move has confused industry participants, including the Indian company that maintains that the acquisition occurred.
Binance’s founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said in a series of tweets that the business has been “trying to close the acquisition for the past few years,” but hasn’t done so yet due to “a few problems,” though he didn’t go into further detail.
In a blog post published at the end of 2019, Binance announced the acquisition of WazirX. The official blog article included the Binance executive’s excitement for the transaction and a picture of Zhao and the WazirX founders.
The 2019 post quoted him as saying, “The acquisition of WazirX shows our commitment and dedication to the Indian people and strengthens the blockchain ecosystem in India as well as represents another step toward achieving the liberation of money.”
In a different blog post, WazirX stated that the company had been “successfully bought by Binance.”
Zhao stated on Friday that Zanmai Labs, the company running WazirX and founded by the original founders, is not anything that Binance “owns any equity in.”
WazirX was “purchased” by Binance, according to a blog post that was published on November 21. This deal was never finalized. Binance has never owned any shares of Zanmai Labs, the company that runs WazirX, at any time, he stated.
“Binance solely offers WazirX wallet services as a technological solution. Off-chain transactions are also integrated to reduce network fees. All other facets of the WazirX exchange, such as user registration, KYC, trading, and initiating withdrawals, are handled by WazirX”, he continued.
Following a potential violation of the foreign exchange law, India’s Enforcement Directorate froze WazirX’s assets worth over $8 million.
Allegations recently state that Binance has serious reservations about how WazirX is run and how Zanmai Labs oversees the platform. Worldwide, Binance works with law enforcement organizations. Any opportunity to collaborate with ED would make us glad, Zhao said.
According to the order issued by the Indian anti-money laundering body on Friday, Binance rarely responds to emails submitted to its designated legal compliance email account.
By trading volume, WazirX is India’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. According to the business, a “1,735% growth from 2020” was seen in its annual trade volume in 2021, which exceeded $43 billion. Several other Indian exchanges also receive technology from the platform.
Zhao’s allegations have been refuted by the co-founder of WazirX, Nischal Shetty, who asserts that Binance did, in fact, buy WazirX.
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