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By Laxmikant Khanvilkar
Chengpeng Zhao refusing to bail-out FTX last month resulted in moving the spotlight on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume. Initially, Zhao agreed to extend helping hand to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Freid, his rival who was his colleague earlier.
Both Zhao and Bankman-Fried simultaneously launched their own ventures. Both offered app-based platform to trade cryptocurrencies.
Zhao founded Binance in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands. He had previously created high frequency trading software. Binance was initially based in China but later moved its headquarters out of China shortly before the Chinese government-imposed regulations on cryptocurrency trading.
Within a few years, Binance entered into expansion drive. It acquired Trust Wallet, a decentralized cryptocurrency wallet, for an undisclosed sum.
Later, Binance went on to announce its partnership with Simplex, the Israel-based payment processor. The deal would enable cryptocurrency purchases with debit and credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard.
Binance fell prey to hacker’s attack. In 2019, Binance revealed that it had been the victim of a “large scale security breach” in which hackers had stolen 7,000 Bitcoin worth around $40 million at the time.
In 2021, Binance was put under investigation by both the United States Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service on allegations of money laundering and tax offenses.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ordered Binance to stop all regulated activity in the United Kingdom in June 2021.
It is alleged that Binance shared client data, including names and addresses, with the Russian government.
On November 30, 2022, Binance purchased Sakura Exchange. The acquisition allowed Binance to re-enter the Japanese Crypto market.
Binance launched its native coin BNB, currently limited to 200 million circulation with valuation pegged at $20 bn.
Binance owns CoinMarketCap, the website providing information of cryptocurrency markets. In February 2022, Binance took a $200 million stake in Forbes. The company’s markets cap stands at $47.89 bn.
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