- Exchange allegedly worked with a Chinese bank to pay salaries and used an office until 2019
- Binance’s CEO insists his company left the Chinese market after the escalating restrictions on crypto
- CFTC accused the exchange of purposefully not disclosing its offices’ locations
After the recent lawsuit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao brought by the US CFTC for violating crypto trading and derivatives laws, the defendants are facing new allegations.
Financial Times published a report on March 29, according to which the exchange and its charismatic CEO intentionally hid their links to China for years.
Using a Chinese bank to pay salaries and more
According to the report, FT has seen documents related to Binance and CZ’s secret connections to China. Allegedly, Binance senior executives ordered staff members to conceal the company’s presence in the country.
The report cites working with a Chinese bank to pay salaries, using an office until 2019, and carrying out other crypto-related activity in China.
CZ denies all claims
Binance’s CEO has gone on record saying that his company left the Chinese market after the escalating restrictions on crypto more than five years ago. The Chinese government cracked down on crypto trading and mining intensely in 2021, outlawing all kinds of crypto-related activity and crypto exchanges.
Binance ended yuan-dominated trades on its platform at the end of 2021. CZ reacted to the FT report by condemning conventional media sources for publishing false narratives. He said it would be easy to prove the exchange didn’t work in China using blockchain data.
Intentional lack of disclosure
In its lawsuit, the CFTC accused the exchange of purposefully not disclosing its offices’ locations. Some have countered this accusation, saying that the exchange has established a remote work policy across all of its structures and most of its employees work from home.
Binance’s balance is $64B
Nansen data show that Binance’s on-chain balance is $64 billion. According to CZ, the exchange processes billions of deposits and withdrawals every day. There was some outflow after the US CFTC lawsuit, but it was far lower than what was recorded in the midst of the FTX crisis or the BUSD crackdown.
