CZ Questions Report on US SEC’s BNB Probe
The Binance CEO questioned the credibility of the report, adding that his company has been in contact with regulatory bodies around the globe.
The CEO of Binance says the company communicates with regulatory bodies ‘very fully’.
“I don’t know what the media knows or not or don’t know but we have been collaborating with regulatory bodies and regulatory agencies very fully.”
This is the statement of Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Binance, after a report from Bloomberg revealed earlier this month that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to open an investigation into cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Binance over the 2017 initial coin offering of BNB, its native token.
The Binance CEO questioned the credibility of the report, adding that his company has been in contact with regulatory bodies around the globe.
“The SEC did not make an official announcement, we did not make any official announcement. We do communicate with every single regulator in the US and also globally, so we do get questions from them from time to time.”
Changpeng CZ Zhao, CEO of Binance
Justifying his claim, he shared a news article published three years ago that had an initial story that Binance office was raided by the Chinese Authority and other media outlets copied its storyline. Then three days after, the original article changed its story that Binance office was visited by gunmen officials only, and no raid happened.
The news article that CZ is pertaining to refers to a media report that the Chinese police raided different offices of Binance in Shanghai last 2019, the report was debunked by a Binance spokesperson, and implied that “no such offices even exist.”
“Those (news article stories) are very different things. I don’t know what the media knows or not or don’t know but we have been collaborating with regulatory bodies and regulatory agencies very fully,” he stressed.
The Binance founder clarified that the US SEC is asking questions about its native token, but did not mention if the company has been subpoenaed or not.
He explained that the BNB is just a native token on its blockchain, and never constituted a security sale.
“And I strongly believe that BNB is not a security, we have a very strong legal opinions on that as well, so I think that’s a risk for us,” he concluded.
BNB is currently the fifth-largest token in terms of market cap, with $39,396,777,765. At the time of writing, it has a price of $240.90.
Prior to the report, Zhao also had an ongoing SEC probe over his links to two firms trading on Binance US. The exchange also faces other investigations including a joint investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice over tax and money laundering concerns, and a Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation into insider trading and market manipulation.
This article: CZ Questions Report on US SEC’s BNB Probe
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