Binance CEO Clarifies Statement After Misreporting

Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, has come out to clarify reports that said Binance owns stakes in Zanmai Labs. Zanmai Labs is the mother company of WazirX, an Indian crypto exchange platform. The clarification came after regulators in India froze WazirX accounts.

Indian Regulator Zooms in On Binance

A public statement has it that the Indian regulator, Enforcement Directorate, has WazirX under investigation. This began in 2021 for the role it allegedly played in money laundering arrangements. The Enforcement Directorate conducted a raid on WazirX’s co-founder, Sameer Mhatre, on the 5th of August due to suspected links to Chinese apps.

Binance was called upon since the investigation began. This followed CZ’s denial of WazirX’s acquisition. CZ went ahead to state on Twitter that the company’s acquisition process was not completed at any time.

It should be pointed out, however, that the acquisition was considered and announced in 2019. Another tweet from CZ in that period stated that the purchase was down. He stated clearly that Binance owned the Indian exchange, WarizX.

CZ Might Have Lied

On the flip side, CZ’s latest thread of tweets denied the acquisition. The CEO currently claims that Binance is being targeted with inaccurate reporting.

He posted that Binance published a post in 2019 that it acquired WazirX but the transaction was not completed. Binance, he said, has not owned any part of Zanmai Labs at any time.

But WazirX’s founder, Nischal Shetty, has come out to refute CZ’s position. He took to his Twitter page to say Binance acquired WazirX, contrary to CZ’s claims. Zanmai Labs, he said, was founded as an Indian business by him and his co-founders.

Binance is not having legal entanglements for the first time. The company has often been accused of illegal activities on many fronts. Bloomberg recently reported that the investigation against Binance has spread to include possible market manipulation and insider trading. 

As a matter of fact, a think tank based in the Philippines said in July that Binance poses a risk to the public. There is currently a lawsuit against the firm for mispresenting TerraUSD. In July, a developer with the pseudonym, CryptoFelon, claimed CZ was trying to steal his domain.