Image: © prima91/Stock.adobe.com
Following regulatory scrutiny, the company’s CEO said Binance would scrap its decentralised model in favour of establishing regional headquarters.
Cryptocurrency exchange company Binance has identified Ireland as a potential location for its future expansion plans, its CEO said recently.
Changpeng Zhao told Reuters that Ireland could potentially host one of Binance’s several planned new headquarters.
It registered its first Irish company Binance Ireland Holdings last year, and over the past few weeks the company has registered three more firms in Ireland. Zhao has been listed as company director of the new Binance APAC Holdings, Binance Services Holdings and Binance Technologies.
Binance has historically focused on not having a physical headquarters. But having fallen foul of several nations’ regulators recently, Zhao said the company could break with some of its “decentralised principles” and establish regional headquarters to reassure regulators.
“It’s very clear now [that] to run a centralised exchange, you need a centralised, legal entity structure behind it,” he told Reuters.
Binance was banned in the UK earlier this year after the country’s financial regulator clamped down on its activity there. The crypto exchange has also been in trouble with regulators in the US, Japan, South Africa, Singapore and China.
The company is thought to have headquarters registered in the Cayman Islands, but much of its corporate structure is unclear.
Binance today (12 October) announced the introduction of a $1bn growth fund for its smart chain to accelerate the adoption of digital assets and blockchain technology. The $1bn fund will be divided across four key initiatives including investments, a builder programme, talent development and liquidity incentives.
Zhao said he hopes the funding will help the company “disrupt traditional finance and accelerate global mass adoption of digital assets to become the first-ever blockchains ecosystem with 1bn users”.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
