Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao Monday said the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume spent over US$1 billion on compliance efforts with its market share continuing to increase.
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Fast facts
- Zhao Monday said on his verified Twitter handle that a recent CoinDesk interview with its investigations team claiming Binance lost 90% of customers after implementing know-your-customer (KYC) requirements was a misquote.
- “90% of users from one specific entity on our platform were lost after we offboarded that organization for being in violation of our terms of use,” a Binance spokesperson told Forkast in an email. “Those users represented less than 0.001% of our daily trading volume.”
- CoinDesk updated the article on Monday saying it was not the addition of KYC identity checks, but rather the AML measure of removing sanctioned accounts, in part because they hadn’t gone through KYC, that cost Binance billions in revenue.
- Binance has been ramping up its AML and KYC efforts as it seeks to stay compliant.
- Binance has been given regulatory approval to offer crypto-related services in France, Italy, Spain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
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