Binance Hired Over 4000 Employees in 2021-22

Binance, founded in July 2013 by Changpeng Zhao, reportedly became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in less than two months. It has since steadily expanded its global footprint by entering new international markets.

However, a new investigative report by Reuters

has uncovered new details about the exchange’s efforts to avoid compliance with regulations in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The article’s authors, Tom Wilson and Angus Berwick claim that the exchange is to blame for the chaos in the company’s compliance program.

According to Reuters, the investigation included a review of thousands of company messages, emails, and documents from 2017 to the beginning of 2022, as well as interviews with approximately 30 former employees, advisors, and business partners.

Reuters’ review of internal Binance communications suggests the exchange attempted to evade UK regulators in several ways. According to the allegations, Zhao approved a plan by a Binance executive to backdate a company document in 2020 so that a Binance UK subsidiary would not be subject to review under new illicit finance rules.

In addition, Zhao sanctioned a plan by lieutenants in 2018 to “insulate” Binance from scrutiny by US authorities by establishing a new American exchange called Binance US. This alternative exchange would act as a “regulatory inquiry clearing house,” diverting attention from the primary platform. Messages obtained by Reuters show that company executives implemented the strategy.

The new US exchange, according to Zhao, is a “fully independent entity.” The truth, though, is that CZ “controlled Binance.US and ran it from abroad,” as evidenced by regulatory filings from 2020, company messages, and interviews with former team members.

The Reuters article went on to list a slew of other inconsistencies. However, in response, Binance published a blog post written by CZ. He claimed that for several months, one of the article’s reporters had written “a series of stories” about Binance based “entirely on anonymous sources.” By the middle of the year, Binance had already taken the “unusual step” of publishing all of their emails with the Reuters reporter mentioned above.

CZ recently published a blog post emphasizing Binance’s commitment to compliance.

The fact that “over 4,000 new employees, many of whom are in the compliance, investigations, and security space,” have been hired by the exchange in the last year is particularly noteworthy.

In addition, he stated,

“We have been working hand-in-glove with regulators across the globe to restructure our organization and upgrade our systems. Our global security and compliance team has grown to more than 500 employees across the globe and includes professionals with backgrounds as regulators, senior investigators from distinguished blockchain analysis firms, and law enforcement agents who have led some of the largest investigations into cybercrimes.”