Binance denies ownership of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX

The founder of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, said that his company does not own any stake in the compromised Indian crypto exchange WazirX.

In response to a request from the Indian Enforcement Authority (ED), which is conducting an internal investigation into the WazirX exchange, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said that the legal relationship claimed by the Indian regulator between WazirX and Binance is not true. Binance interacted with WazirX only as “one of the technical solutions.”

“Binance does not own Zanmai Labs, and has never, at any time, owned shares in any other company operating the WazirX exchange,” Changpeng Zhao said.

He added that reports of WazirX trading in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and how Zanmai Labs mismanaged the platform were of “deep concern” to Binance. Zhao assured that his company is ready to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in India “in any way possible.”

As a reminder, on November 21, 2019, Binance itself published a post on its blog that it had acquired WazirX. However, according to Zhao, the procedure was never completed. The founder and one of the directors of WazirX, Nischal Shetty, relatively recently officially announced that Binance acquired the cryptocurrency exchange two years ago.

WazirX is currently under internal investigation for violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), as well as the active assistance of the exchange in the fraudulent activities of approximately 16 fintech companies. According to the latest data, law enforcement agencies in India announced the blocking of assets of the WazirX exchange for $ 8.14 million for non-cooperation.