Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange’s credibility is under question after they refused the fact that India’s biggest crypto exchange WazirX is under their acquisition. Two years ago, in an official blog post on Binance’s website, Changpeng Zhao told about the amount of content he received by acquiring WazirX and was proud of the fact that he is participating in the progression of the Crypto industry in India. Zhao claimed that;
“The young demographic in India gives an edge to adopt and build on new financial technologies, and I believe this will play a vital role in making India a global blockchain innovation center to also spur cryptocurrency adoption throughout the larger public in the country,”
“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.”, he added.
Furthermore, on the official Twitter page of Binance, Zhao shared the figures that WazirX made in the year 2019 and was confident that the number would be 5x the next year.
But the sudden change of emotions occurred this Friday(05/08/2022) when Zhao said that Binance never actually acquired WazirX and the transaction was never made due to some “unrevealable complexities.”
“On 21 Nov 2019, Binance published a blog post that it had ‘acquired’ WazirX. This transaction was never completed. Binance has never – at any point – owned any shares of Zanmai Labs, the entity operating WazirX,” he wrote.
The claim was followed by freezing of WazirX’s assets worth over $8 million due to a violation of the foreign exchange rule by India’s Enforcement Directorate.
“Recent allegations about the operation of WazirX and how the platform is managed by Zanmai Labs are of deep concern to Binance. Binance collaborates with law enforcement agencies all around the world. We would be happy to work with ED in any way possible,” Zhao added.
The volume of WazirX is immense, and they were worth $43 billion in 2021 and had more than 1000% growth from their previous year. The co-founder of WazirX, Nischal Shetty, tweeted defying Zhao’s claims and said the acquisition was successful and Binance is just trying to avoid defamation from freezing assets.