Binance says it doesn’t own Indian exchange WazirX – TechCrunch

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, said on Friday it doesn’t own India-based platform WazirX despite disclosing the acquisition two and a half years ago in a move that has baffled industry players, including the Indian firm.

Changpeng Zhang, founder and chief executive officer of Binance said In a series of tweets that the company has been “trying to conclude the deal for the past few years,” but hasn’t completed the transaction yet citing “a few issues” that he declined to elaborate.

Binance announced WazirX’s acquisition in late 2019, a blog post. The official blog post, which carried a picture of Zhao and WazirX founders, also featured the Binance executive’s enthusiasm about the deal.

“The acquisition of WazirX shows our commitment and dedication to the Indian people and strengthen the blockchain ecosystem in India as well as another step forward in achieving the freedom of money,” the 2019 post cited him as saying.

WazirX also reported that it had been “successfully acquired by Binance” in a separate blog post.

Zhao sent a tweet last January sharing a news article about WazirX. Binance describes it as being owned by Zhao.

Zhao said Friday that Binance does not “own any equity in Zanmai Labs,” the entity operating WazirX and established by the original founders.

“On 21 Nov 2019, Binance published a blog post that it had ‘acquired’ WazirX. This transaction never took place. Binance has never – at any point – owned any shares of Zanmai Labs, the entity operating WazirX,” he wrote.

“Binance only provides wallet services for WazirX as a tech solution. To save network fees, there is also integration via off-chain tx. WazirX is responsible all other aspects of the WazirX exchange, including user sign-up, KYC, trading and initiating withdrawals,” he added.

The clarification follows India’s Enforcement Directorate freezing WazirX’s assets worth over $8 million, citing suspected violation of foreign exchange rule.

“Recent allegations about the operation of WazirX and how the platform is managed by Zanmai Labs are of deep concern to Binance. Binance works with law enforcement agencies around the globe. We would be happy to work with ED in any way possible,” Zhao added.

Indian Anti-Money Laundering Agency said Friday’s order stated that Binance responds rarely to inquiries sent to its official legal compliance address.

WazirX has the highest trading volume of any Indian crypto exchange. Its yearly trading volume exceeded $43 billion in 2021, a “1,735% growth from 2020,” the company said It was late last year. It also offers its technology to many other Indian exchanges.

Updated at 10.58 PM (IST): Nischal Shetty, co-founder of WazirX, has disputed Zhao’s claims, asserting Binance indeed acquired WazirX. He shared a series tweets in which he said: