CZ Denies Binance Ownership of Troubled WazirX Exchange

What’s up With WazirX?

On Aug. 5, Indian authorities announced the freezing of assets of WazirX, a leading crypto exchange in the country, to investigate suspected violations of foreign exchange regulations. 

Although the amount of money frozen by the authorities is not large, only about $8 million, this information has caused a particular stir in the crypto community. The reason is that WazirX is a trading platform that was purportedly acquired by Binance in 2019. 

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Binance Backs Away

Shortly after the news broke on WazirX’s legal issues, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”) made a surprising statement that Binance had never acquired WazirX. 

“Binance agreed to invest in Zanmai Labs, the company behind WazirX, but the equity transfer was never made. Both sides only have a technical support relationship. Binance provides a wallet service for WazirX and helps reduce transaction fees. WazirX completely controls its exchange management, including user registration, KYC, and deposits,” Zhao said on Twitter.

However, Nischal Shetty, the founder of WazirX, refuted Changpeng Zhao's claims. He claimed that Binance had acquired WazirX and Zanmai Labs, an Indian company owned by him and other co-founders. 

‍In addition, Shetty said Zanmai Labs has a license from Binance to trade the Indian rupee to crypto pairs on the WazirX platform, and that Binance also manages crypto-crypto pairs and withdrawals. He said everything is clearly stated in the WazirX Terms of Use.

The Warzix CEO also said that Binance owns WazirX's domain name, has root access to WazirX's AWS server, manages all WazirX’s crypto assets, and holds all WazirX’s profits. Therefore, Shetty said Zanmai Labs should not be equated with WazirX.

Binance CEO Zhao responded, “It's sad to have to debate this on Twitter. Binance only provides wallet services for WazirX. The WazirX domain name has been transferred under our management. We share access to AWS. In theory, we could crash WazirX, but we don't because it would harm users.”

“Binance does NOT manage activities such as user registration, KYC, trading and withdrawals. WazirX's founding team has full control over them. They never handed over control of them to Binance, despite our requests,” he said.

Finally, WazirX founder Shetty said KYC is handled by Zanmai India through a license by Binance, and said if Zhao wants KYC control over WazirX, then Binance needs to acquire Zanmai India.

Binance CEO Zhao warned users that if they have money on WazirX, to move to Binance.

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What Is WazirX:

WazirX is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges operating in India. The exchange was founded in March 2018 by Computer Science engineer Nischal Shetty alongside co-founders Sameer Mhatre and Siddharth Menon. The platform launched its own token.

Find more about WazirX here:‍

Website | Twitter | Youtube | Instagram | Facebook | Telegram | Reddit |

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