Binance woes continue as it exits derivatives space in Europe, faces investigation in India
Binance, the largest crypto exchange, seems to have no end in sight as far as its operations go as it has been forced to exit the derivatives trading space in many regions across Europe and it faces investigation from the Indian authorities in a money-laundering probe.
This comes close on the heels of the news that it has been asked to exit the crypto space in Malaysia for operating illegally despite being slapped with SC caution.
The latest move in Europe comes up due to increased scrutiny about the actions of the crypto exchange from regulators all around the world and the exchange announced that it will no longer accept new clients for derivatives products from Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. It has also been facing heat from regulators in the UK and Hong Kong as well as the regulators begin to crack down on errant crypto exchanges.
It has to be seen whether these actions would be temporary as Binance struggles to keep pace with regulation, having grown globally very quickly over the last few years, due to the lack of regulation at that time. Now that the regulators are beginning to crack the whip, the company is struggling a bit to catch up and the CEO of the company, CZ, had even announced that he was willing to step down if that helped the company to get regulated in many regions quickly.
But his woes do not seem to end there as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India has summoned Binance executives for having helped Chinese betting companies and others to launched over $134 million from India over a period of close to a year through the crypto exchange WazirX, which is owned by Binance. The exchange is also accused of signing up clients without following mandatory KYC requirements which have made it difficult to collect details of clients and fraudulent accounts.
Though accusations have been flying from the ED thick and fast, WazirX and Binance continue to maintain that they have not received any notices so far and that they are willing to cooperate fully with any kind of scrutiny of their actions. The details continue to be murky with regards to this case but one thing is clear though, that India is one more in the list where Binance is in trouble as far as regulators go and it is going to be a difficult and long process for the company to get into the good books of the regulators as it struggles to keep its exchange running.
