Fearing prosecution, Binance reportedly created its U.S. platform as a shield from regulators.
That’s according to a lengthy Sunday (March 5) report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing internal documents and messages and interviews with former employees of the world’s largest cryptocurrency company.
The report says those messages and interviews show a strategy by Binance to create Binance.US – an apparently independent company — to protect itself from financial regulators who have of late been intensifying their scrutiny of the company.
In addition, the WSJ says its reporting shows Binance and Binance.US are more connected than the two companies have let on, mixing staff and finances. Binance developers in China also maintained software code for users’ digital wallets, potentially letting Binance access American customer data.
Read more: Binance.US’s Acquisition Of Voyager Digital Hits Various Roadblocks
The report also shares texts between employees of the two companies from 2019 that illustrate their close involvement.
A Binance spokesperson told PYMNTS Sunday that the agreement between Binance and its U.S. operation is common in their industry, with Binance’s founders licensing the tech stack to other organizations that weren’t affiliated with the company.
“That is why you’re seeing these old communications between members of the two organizations,” the spokesperson said.
“Additionally, it’s important to note that Binance.com and Binance.US shared the same ultimate beneficial owner which has been public knowledge since inception,” the spokesperson told PYMNTS. “Binance.US however has recently gone through a funding round, whereas Binance.com has not.”
