CEO Zhao: Binance Exchange Plans to Be Regulated Everywhere
As the regulatory pressure for unregulated crypto exchanges grows worldwide, Binance, which has been under pressure from financial regulators in several countries, has plans to get licensed everywhere.
CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, recently went public on some major up coming changes the exchange has planned en route to improve its relations with financial regulators worldwide.
Binance’s Change of Course
According to Reuters, Zhao made a statement that Binance has plans to establish regional headquarters given the approval of regulators, making its operations more centralized.
Zhao also pointed out that he may also step down in place of a successor that can address these regulatory issues better than he can. He highlighted that he is not being forced to do so, but would do this for the sake of the business.
“I’m a technology entrepreneur. We are doing this pivot to be a regulated financial institution and I would be very open to look for a leader with a strong regulatory background.”
Zhao also said that he plans to see Binance “licensed everywhere”. From here on out, it will be a “financial institution,” he continued.
These comments come as global regulators have been issuing warnings and even taken legal action against Binance exchange on many fronts. This includes suspected of the exchange use for money laundering – a timeless criticism of cryptocurrency that has almost always lacked statistical proof. Any currency can be – and widely is – used for money laundering, so it’s not a crypto only issue.
Regulators vs. Binance
This is not the first time Binance has adjusted operations to satisfy regulatory bodies. Just this month, Binance announced that they would stop trading tokens representing equity stocks– an only three-month-old service that came under German scrutiny only weeks after its launch.
Binance recently announced that it has reduced the max leverage to 20X on July 19th for new accounts, in order to ease consumer protection concerns.
Binance trading volumes reached $668 billion dollars last month, with increasing popularity in Britain. However, the exchange was recently barred by the UK FCA from engaging in regulated financial activities there as well. This led into Binance to halt Sterling Pound withdrawals.
