Binance goes on collecting financial licenses

World’s biggest crypto exchange that has earned itself quite a sulphurous reputation with financial authorities is now on the path to redemption.

After anti-crypto regulations pushed Binance to leave China in 2017, it moved its official headquarters to the Cayman Islands, all while continuing its global operations.

The first country to point its regulatory finger on it was USA (of course ?), which banned Binance in 2019, prohibiting it from servicing US citizens. In response, Binance US was launched, in a partnership with a rather obscure money servicing firm called BAM, which main virtue was an active FinCEN registration.

Since then, several other countries like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK have issued warnings, urging the exchange to comply with their regulations, and the UK even went as far as formally banning its activity last summer.

Was it the UK ban that pushed CZ, Binance’s CEO, to reconsider its strategy ? That we’ll probably never know, but what is sure is that in 2022 Binance went on a license-collecting spree.

⚖️ In March it obtained a Specialist License by Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority of Dubai;

⚖️ In April – a provisional green light from Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi;

⚖️ In May – a Digital Asset Services Provider visa from the Authorité des Marchés Financiers of France,

⚖️ a “Category 4” full cryptoasset service provider license from the Central Bank of Bahrein,

⚖️ and most recently – a Cryptocurrency Service Provider registration from the Organismo Agenti e Mediatori of Italy.

Binance is also currently undergoing an authorization procedure in Kazakhstan, a country with which it signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week, promising advisory assistance on crypto regulation and support of the local blockchain industry. The latter appears to be its favourite strategy so far: prior to its official registration, Binance had promised to invest €100M in the French blockchain industry, develop a crypto hub in Dubai… and the local politicians seem to understand real money and opportunities so far.

As crypto is becoming increasingly regulated all over the world, it was about time Binance took care of its legal matters. Luckily, an exchange that claims a 24-hour trading volume of over $70 billion, has resources to spare on local incentives ?