Binance was recently criticized by critics and conspiracy theorists accused the company of being a “China-based criminal entity secretly controlled by the Chinese government.” In the meantime, CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) responded to the allegations:
Who Is Guanying Chen, and Is Binance a “Chinese Company”? | Binance Blog https://t.co/sz9wJfXqNH
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) September 1, 2022
The accusations come from from a discussion on twitter following a post by a former Washington Post journalist. Last week, the journalist sent a tweet to one of the executives during a disagreement about “media bias” on Twitter. Out of the blue he asked, “Now that I have you here, who is Guangying Chen?”
I have written one story for the Washington Post about Binance. It’s the biggest crypto exchange in the world. There’s a lot to write about. I am also reporting on FTX and many other crypto industry players.
While I have you here, who’s Guangying Chen?
— JacobSilverman.shill (@SilvermanJacob) August 25, 2022
Who is Guangying Chen from Binance?
In the statement, CZ talks about his personal past with China. He and his family fled the country to Canada when he was 12 years old. CZ moved back to China in 2005 and started a exchange-as-a-service company called Bijie Tech. However, the Chinese government closed all such exchanges in March 2017, forcing the company to shut down.
“All our customers went bankrupt. Later, the idea of Binance would begin to take shape. It was a simple notion that a more streamlined crypto exchange could provide a more frictionless user experience without sacrificing useful features.”
CZ explains that the question “who is Guangying Chen?” is a reference to a conspiracy theory. His friend Guangying Chen is said to be the secret owner of Bijie Tech and possibly Binance as well. CZ denies this and says she is just a former colleague of Bijie Tech who was rehired at Binance.
“The bottom line is that because we have ethnically Chinese employees, and maybe because I’m ethnically Chinese, we’re secretly in the Chinese government’s pocket.”
Bitcoin exchange Binance active worldwide
Binance has subsidiaries in countries such as France, Spain, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
“But we have no legal entities in China, and we have no plans to do so. The biggest challenge Binance faces today is that we (and every other offshore exchange) in China have been classified as a criminal entity.”
Binance was legally incorporated in the Cayman Islands in 2017, but currently has no formalized headquarters. By October 2021, Binance had amassed an estimated 28.6 million crypto users, making it the largest centralized crypto exchange in the world. New users can sign up here Binance accountt create.
