May 16, 2024

Binance denies ownership of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX

Article Reading Time:
2 minutes.

Binance denies ownership of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX

The founder of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, said that his company does not own any stake in the compromised Indian crypto exchange WazirX.

In response to a request from the Department of EnforcementIndia (ED), which is conducting an internal investigation into the WazirX exchange, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said that the legal relationship between WazirX and Binance stated by the Indian regulator is not true. Binance interacted with WazirX only as “one of the technical solutions.”

“Binance does not own Zanmai Labs, nor has it ever at any time owned shares in any other company that operates the WazirX exchange,” Changpeng Zhao said.

He added that reports of operationsconducted by the WazirX exchange in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), and how Zanmai Labs mismanages the platform have caused Binance “deep concern.” Zhao assured that his company is ready to cooperate with Indian law enforcement agencies “in any possible way.”

Let us remind you that on November 21, 2019, Binance itself published
post on her blog that sheacquired WazirX. However, according to Zhao, the procedure was never completed. The founder and one of the directors of WazirX, Nischal Shetty, recently officially stated that Binance acquired the cryptocurrency exchange two years ago.

An internal investigation is currently underway against WazirX
cases of violation of the law on managementforeign exchange transactions (FEMA), as well as the exchange's active assistance in the fraudulent activities of approximately 16 fintech companies. According to the latest data, Indian law enforcement agencies announced the blocking of assets of the WazirX exchange worth $8.14 million for refusal to cooperate.