Binance is not a Chinese company, says Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao has hit back at claims that his cryptocurrency exchange Binance is a Chinese company.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has hit back at critics who claim that the cryptocurrency exchange is a Chinese company. 

According to the claims, CZ’s personal friend and Chinese national Guangying Chen is the secret owner of Bijie Tech (a tech company he founded in 2015) and possibly also Binance.

CZ explained that Chen is a colleague he hired to manage the back office at Bijie Tech, and he also hired her again at Binance. The critics had claimed that Chen was the secret owner of Bijie Tech and Binance, considering she was one of the few who initially remained in China. He said;

“As a result, both she and her family have been targeted and harassed by the media and online trolls. Had I known how much of a negative impact this would have on her life, I never would have asked her to do what seemed like such an innocuous step at the time.”

CZ also denied rumours that Binance has close links to the Chinese government. He went on to recount some of his terrible experiences with Chinese authorities. The Binance CEO said;

“The greatest challenge that Binance faces today is that we (and every other offshore exchange) have been designated a criminal entity in China. At the same time, our opposition in the west bends over backward to paint us as a ‘Chinese company. The inference is that because we have ethnically Chinese employees, and perhaps because I am ethnically Chinese, we are secretly in the pocket of the Chinese government.”

He went on to add that Binance has become a global company with subsidiaries in countries like France, Spain, Italy, UAE, and Bahrain. CZ said;

“We are active in pursuing top talent, no matter where they hail from. Over the past two years, as we expanded into Europe and the Middle East and recruited a more senior leadership team, Binance’s executive team is now more heavily dominated by Europeans and Americans. Our broader employee base is even more globally distributed. Despite these facts, some people insist on calling us a ‘Chinese company”

CZ also explained how the Chinese authorities shut down Bijie Tech. He left with some of his employees from Bijie Tech to set up Binance.

However, the Chinese government also blocked the exchange by issuing a memorandum stating that crypto exchanges were not allowed to operate in China.

Binance is now the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, processing over $15 billion daily.