New Binance chief refuses to disclose global headquarters’ location

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The new chief executive of Binance has refused to disclose the location of the cryptocurrency exchange’s global headquarters, maintaining a stance taken by his predecessor before the company pleaded guilty to US criminal charges.

Richard Teng replaced Changpeng Zhao as CEO of Binance last month, after Binance entered guilty pleas to charges related to money laundering and international sanctions violations. Zhao resigned after pleading guilty to a charge relating to failure to protect against money laundering.

Zhao long insisted that Binance had no global headquarters. Teng on Tuesday declined to reveal where the exchange was based. He also said Binance has undergone audits in jurisdictions where it is regulated, but declined to name the audit firms involved.

“Why do you feel so entitled to those answers?” Teng asked at the FT Crypto and Digital Assets Summit in London, adding that the company provides the necessary information to regulators. “Is there a need for us to share all of this information publicly? No.” 

Binance agreed to pay $4.3bn in penalties to resolve the US criminal charges and a civil case brought by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Kristin Johnson, a CFTC commissioner, said on Tuesday she hoped that the heavy penalties would bring “order and structure”.

Another civil case from the US Securities and Exchange Commission remains unresolved.

Teng, a former regulator in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, previously served as Binance’s global head of regional exchanges. He said the company’s European headquarters is in France and the Middle East headquarters is in Dubai, adding that company’s global base will be disclosed “as and when it’s appropriate”.

Under Zhao’s leadership, Binance hid substantial links to China for several years despite public messages claiming the exchange had left the country.

Through its deals with US authorities, Teng said Binance had “acknowledged those mistakes” and “moved past them”.

Under its settlement with US authorities, Binance has agreed to up to five years of oversight by an independent compliance monitor. 

“The compliance monitor to me in many senses is a key positive,” said Teng, adding: “That gave a lot of confidence to users including institutional users which are now approaching us in a very aggressive fashion”.

He was speaking as prices of coins like bitcoin and ethereum have been climbing, in part on hopes that a year-long crypto crackdown by US authorities has peaked. Bitcoin rose 4.5 per cent on Tuesday to touch $44,000, its highest point since March 2022.

According to figures from industry data provider CCData, Binance’s share of the crypto spot market fell to roughly 32 per cent at the end of November from a high of well over 50 per cent at the start of the year. Its hold on the crypto derivatives market has shrunk from 64 per cent in December 2022 to 48 per cent.

Teng said that the exchange’s fortunes were reviving after reaching deals with US authorities. “If you continue to monitor our market share since the resolution, it’s creeping back up,” he said.