Binance has declined to comment on a media report that its CEO Changpeng Zhao almost shuttered the crypto trading platform’s arm in the United States in an effort to protect its global company.
Citing anonymous sources, the tech media outlet reported that the board of directors of Binance’s U.S. entity, Binance.US, initiated a vote to liquidate the company. However, they could not reach a unanimous decision, with Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder opposing it.
According to the report, Shroder was worried that an abrupt shutdown of the U.S.-based exchange would be detrimental to its users, as they would be forced to quickly move or liquidate their assets.
Cointelegraph reached out to Binance, but a spokesperson for the exchange said it was “not commenting” on this issue.
Binance and Zhao have become a target of U.S. regulators in the past few months. On March 27, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against Binance and Zhao for alleged trading violations. On June 5, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a lawsuit against the exchange, its U.S. arm, and Zhao, alleging that Binance “enriched themselves” with billions of U.S. dollars while putting investors at risk.
Related: Nigeria’s SEC warns against trading on Binance
Despite the regulatory challenges and risks, Binance continues to expand its business in various parts of the globe. On Aug. 1, Binance officially announced the launch of Binance Japan, offering spot trading for 34 tokens. The exchange plans to migrate its global users based in Japan to its local version starting Aug. 14 to comply with the country’s regulatory framework.
In a Twitter (recently rebranded to X) ask-me-anything session on July 31, Zhao stated that amid the regulatory and transparency risks concerning stablecoins, it’s important to diversify. The CEO highlighted that he is cautious of stablecoins like Tether (USDT) — the largest stablecoin by market capitalization — and admitted that even Binance USD (BUSD) comes with unforeseeable risks.
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