In recent months, Reuters “reporters” have published several articles about Binance. They have made statements that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says are based on anonymous sources. The latest article by Reuters “reporters” published on October 17, 2022, accused Changpeng Zhao of plotting to evade "regulatory scrutiny." In the article, Reuters explained how Binance allegedly dodged regulators in the U.S. and U.K.
The boss of the world's most powerful cryptocurrency exchange platform was quick to respond to the various accusations leveled against his company and himself.
To that end, Changpeng made a post in which he returned to the story of lack of compliance that Reuters reported, among other things:
“Since last year alone, we have hired more than 4,000 new employees, many of whom are in the compliance, investigations, and security space. Today, Binance is a very different company than it was when it was founded. We have been working hand-in-glove with regulators across the globe to restructure our organization and upgrade our systems. Our global security and compliance team has grown to more than 500 employees across the globe and includes professionals with backgrounds as regulators, senior investigators from distinguished blockchain analysis firms, and law enforcement agents who have led some of the largest investigations into cybercrimes. However, this is an effort that is never finished so we continue to invest in establishing a compliance framework users can trust.”
The full response from CZ can be read on the Binance website: https://www.binance.com/en/blog/from-cz/our-response-to-the-latest-reuters-story-3429055481452985078.
I invite you to read it in full to make your own opinion. Don't Trust, Verify ;)
CZ added that Binance works closely with regulators around the world. Thus, the exchange has never sought to dodge the regulators. On the contrary, it seeks to restructure the way it organizes itself and upgrade its systems by working with regulators. CZ added that his company intends to continue to “invest in establishing a compliance framework users can trust.”
Reuters also criticized CZ's leadership style for being a “strong leader committed to secrecy, focused on market dominance and attentive to the smallest operational details.”
So CZ used its post on the Binance website to respond regarding its leadership style:
“This reporter at Reuters seems to think I am an 'overbearing' and 'secretive' leader who 'micromanages employees.' In fact, I'm very transparent about my leadership style and every Binance employee has access to 'CZ's Principles,' a document that I wrote to codify my leadership style and regularly update as I learn new things. I realize not everyone will like my approach but it works for us. It's an approach that I believe will work for start-ups like us but probably for more-established businesses too. Last week, I shared these ideas outside of Binance for the first time. I'll let the document speak for itself.”
The document describing CZ's principles at Binance can be read here: https://www.binance.com/en/blog/from-cz/czs-principles-6343713009794494746.
Finally, CZ also explained that it has a good reason for keeping Binance's office locations secret. This is to protect its employees from possible retaliation for the fact that the exchange has helped seize the assets of numerous criminal organizations around the world. He said regulators have Binance's local addresses and contact information.
According to Binance's CEO, the recent accusations against him by Reuters reporters are untrue, and the crypto exchange's boss comes across as a leader who does what it takes to protect his family and employees while working for Binance's compliance.
It's up to you to make up your mind based on these different elements. For my part, I find it rather interesting that he is being so transparent, and I rather want to believe him, while the Reuters reporters are rather serving the cause of the current system by spreading gratuitous attacks against a prominent representative of the cryptocurrency world.
But as I said, you have the last word on these elements, as I always recommend you to think for yourself. I'm just trying to bring you some elements and avenues of thought. I do not hold the absolute truth, it does not exist anyway.
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