Binance In Hot Water – Denies One, Gets Sued By Another
Binance currently faces a rift with another crypto exchange, which it used to be friendly with, so to speak. Add a multibillion-dollar lawsuit, not to mention irregularities from its operations abroad, and it looks like CZ Zhao’s company needs a long board meeting. ASAP.
The start of August hasn’t been kind lately to Binance.
The top cryptocurrency exchangehas recently been embroiled in two ugly issues: a business partnership turned sour and a lawsuit from overseas.
First, it denied being the owner of WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency platform in Mumbai.
Earlier this month, an Indian government agency placed WazirX under investigation for money laundering allegations.
Naturally, any company wouldn’t want to be associated with another one facing criminal charges.
The denial from Binance led to a public squabble – more of a Twitter squabble – between its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and WazirX’s co-founder, Nischal Shetty.
While one side declares there’s no business ownership at all, the other side discredits the claim.
Second, Binance has another problem to deal with: a lawsuit to the tune of £10 billion (roughly $12.1 billion).
Last week, Zhao appeared on a Yahoo! Finance segment called “Crypto Corner.”
There, the 44-year-old multibillionaire shared, among other things, his insights on the prospects for the cryptocurrency industry.
In the coming days, many would like to know what Zhao would say about these latest issues concerning Binance.
Binance CEO on crypto hacking, crypto regulation and the outlook for the crypto industry
ED stated that he was “non-cooperative,” which prompted the said probe.
On the contrary, the director was keen on pursuing something else.
ED discovered that Mhatre “actively assisted” an estimated 16 fintech companiesto launder money through “the crypto route.”
With its fraudulent activities, ED froze a bank account by Mhatre, where some of WazirX’s “moveable assets” were deposited.
At that time, it had a balance of INR/Rs (Indian Rupee) 64.67 Crore (1 crore = 10 million), or around $8.1 million.
WazirX India Ka Bitcoin Exchange
This is not the first time WazirX got confronted by ED, according to CoinDesk.
In 2021, ED accused WazirX of violating India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) when it processed questionable crypto transactions that totaled to $382 million.
Despite its current predicament, WazirX informed its users that it’s still business as usual.
On August 6, WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) tweeted:
“„
Notwithstanding the action taken by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), we would like to state that currently deposits and withdrawals are working as usual.
On that same day, CZ Zhao (@cz_binance) tweeted his 6.7 million followers:
“„
If you have funds on WazirX, you should transfer it to Binance. Simple as that.