LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – The world’s greatest cryptocurrency change Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao have been sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) over regulatory violations, in line with a courtroom submitting on Monday.
Listed here are some key details about Binance:
THE COMPANY
Binance was based in Shanghai in 2017, however later moved to Tokyo after which Malta. Whereas its holding firm relies within the Cayman Islands, Binance says it doesn’t have a headquarters and has declined to state the placement of its most important Binance.com change.
The change gives spot and derivatives buying and selling and a number of providers from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to crypto loans and asset administration.
It has some 128 million customers, in line with its a 2022 assessment posted on its web site, with over 7,500 staff internationally. The corporate additionally boasts a formidable social media presence, with over 10 million Twitter followers.
FINANCES
Binance’s world buying and selling platform, Binance.com, is by far the world’s greatest cryptocurrency change. Final 12 months it processed crypto trades value about $65 billion a day, Binance mentioned, dominating the crypto buying and selling panorama with greater than half of the market, CryptoCompare information exhibits.
But its funds are opaque. As a privately held firm, it doesn’t disclose fundamental monetary info resembling income, revenue and money reserves. Binance has additionally not raised exterior capital since 2018, trade information present, which implies it has not needed to share monetary info with exterior buyers since then.
A Reuters evaluation of Binance’s company filings final 12 months discovered that the core of the enterprise – the Binance.com change – stays largely hidden from public view.
LEADERSHIP
Binance was based by CEO Changpeng Zhao, a Canadian citizen born and raised till the age of 12 in China, and Yi He, former host of a Chinese language TV journey present. The pair had been in a romantic relationship and have a son collectively who was born in america, Reuters reported in October.
Yi He’s now one among Zhao’s strongest deputies, working the corporate’s $7.5 billion enterprise capital arm in addition to holding different key roles together with advertising and marketing chief.
Zhao assigned high jobs to an inside circle of associates, lots of whom had labored or studied in China, in line with the Reuters report in October. The corporate has employed extensively from the normal monetary and regulatory worlds lately. In February, Noah Perlman, a veteran of Morgan Stanley, mentioned he had turn out to be Binance’s chief compliance officer.
INVESTMENTS
Binance’s enterprise capital arm has since 2018 invested in over 200 enterprise investments, the corporate says. PitchBook information exhibits that it has spend virtually $2 billion throughout over 150 offers, together with main information web site CoinMarketCap.
Binance final 12 months prolonged its attain past the crypto sector in 2022, investing $500 million in Tesla boss Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
The corporate can also be outstanding on the planet of sport, sponsoring Italian soccer group Lazio and the Argentina nationwide group. It additionally sponsored the 2021 African Cup of Nations event. In 2022, Binance signed a partnership to advertise its NFTs with Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Reporting by Tom Wilson
Modifying by Marguerita Choy
: .