Binance said it does not operate in China and does not own any technology, including servers or data, in the Asian country.
Binance denied the Financial Times report that it has ties to China in an emailed statement to CryptoSlate.
A spokesperson for the cryptocurrency exchange said that the company does not operate in China and does not own any technology, including servers or data, in the Asian country. They added:
“We strongly dispute assertions to the contrary. To be clear, the Chinese government, like any other government, does not have access to Binance data unless we are responding to legitimate and lawful law enforcement requests.”
The Financial Times reported that Binance had an office in the mainland until 2019. The report further claimed that Binance deliberately concealed the scope of its operations in China, despite claims to the contrary.
According to the statement, Binance said that “the anonymous sources [were] citing ancient history and dramatically mischaracterizing events.”
Binance says it will start moving employees outside of China in 2021
Meanwhile, Binance said it will provide relocation assistance to employees working with it in 2021. According to the exchange, this is part of a broader plan to keep its operations abroad.
Binance highlighted that the exchange’s original founding members left Shanghai, China, two months after the company was founded in 2017 following a government regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
Binance wrote that it has “never been registered or established in China, nor does it operate in China, which banned cryptocurrency exchanges in September 2017.”
The exchange further stated that it has grown into a global organization with approximately 8,000 full-time employees from more than 50 nationalities. According to Binance, 25% of its employees are located near regional hubs in Paris and Dubai or in one of the jurisdictions where it is licensed to operate.
Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao has previously refuted claims that his exchange is a Chinese company. According to CZ, critics are using his birthplace and ethnicity to FUD the exchange.