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Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a trading platform for over 100 cryptocurrencies. Since its inception in early 2018, it has been considered t...

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Binance

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange and is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands.

Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who previously worked on high-frequency trading software. Initially, Binance was based in China but later relocated its headquarters due to increasing regulatory scrutiny on cryptocurrencies by the Chinese government.

In 2021, Binance came under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service for allegations of money laundering and tax offenses. The Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom ordered Binance to cease all regulated activities in June 2021.

In the same year, Binance shared customer data, including names and addresses, with the Russian government.

 

History of Binance

In July 2022, Binance celebrated its 5th anniversary with a cake in Paris.

CEO Changpeng Zhao previously founded Fusion Systems in Shanghai in 2005, where he developed high-frequency trading systems for stockbrokers. In 2013, he joined Blockchain.info as the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet team. He also served as the CTO of OKCoin for less than a year, an exchange platform for fiat and digital assets.

Although the company was initially established in China, its servers and headquarters were relocated to Japan before the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency trading in September 2017.

By January 2018, Binance became the largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market value of $1.3 billion. Despite competition from companies like Coinbase, it maintained its position as of April 2021.

In March 2018, Binance announced plans to establish offices in Japan and China following stricter regulations, choosing Malta as its location. In April 2018, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Bermuda. Several months later, a similar memorandum was signed with the Malta Stock Exchange to develop a platform for trading security tokens. In 2019, the company announced the establishment of Binance Jersey, an independent entity of its parent company Binance.com, aimed at expanding its influence in Europe. The exchange, based in Jersey, offers fiat-to-cryptocurrency pairs, including the Euro and British Pound.

In August 2018, Binance, along with three other major exchanges, raised $32 million for a stablecoin project. The concept of stablecoins is to provide a cryptocurrency with stability, avoiding the notorious volatility of Bitcoin and other popular digital assets.

In January 2019, Binance announced a partnership with Israeli payment processor Simplex to support the purchase of cryptocurrencies using debit and credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard. The purchases, subject to local bank policies dictated by Simplex, were limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple's XRP.

On May 7, 2019, Binance revealed that it had fallen victim to a "large-scale security breach" in which hackers stole approximately 7,000 bitcoins worth around $40 million. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that the hackers utilized various techniques, including phishing, viruses, and other attacks, to construct their transactions "in a way that passed our existing security checks." Binance halted further withdrawals and deposits but allowed trading to continue. The website promised to reimburse customers through its "Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU)." Withdrawals were resumed on May 19. Improved resources were deemed necessary.

n September 2019, the exchange started offering perpetual futures contracts, allowing leverage of up to 125 times the contract value. In November 2019, Binance announced the acquisition of Indian Bitcoin exchange WazirX. However, controversy arose in August 2022 when Binance founder Changpeng Zhao claimed that the acquisition was never finalized.

On February 21, 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a public statement in response to media reports referring to Binance as a "Malta-based" cryptocurrency company. The statement clarified that Binance "is not authorized by the MFSA to operate in the cryptocurrency sphere and is therefore not subject to regulatory oversight by the MFSA." The MFSA further stated that it was evaluating whether Binance was conducting any activities in Malta that might fall outside the scope of regulatory supervision.

In March 2020, Binance acquired CoinMarketCap, a popular cryptocurrency market data provider.

On October 28, 2020, leaked documents published by Forbes staff revealed that Binance and Changpeng Zhao had created a carefully designed corporate structure with the intention to deliberately deceive U.S. regulators and secretly profit from cryptocurrency investors in the country. Binance officially blocked access from IP addresses located in the United States, but Forbes claimed that "potential customers will be taught how to evade geographic restrictions."

Reportedly, in May 2021, Binance was under investigation by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegations of money laundering and tax offenses.

In February 2022, Binance made a $200 million investment in Forbes.

In March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao refused to ban users from Russia, citing "financial freedom" as the reason. Binance later softened their stance on this measure and stated that they had donated $10 million for humanitarian needs in Ukraine.

In April 2022, Reuters reported that Binance had shared information with Rosfinmonitoring in 2021 regarding the crowdfunding of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

On May 27, 2022, Binance announced the registration of its corporate entity in Italy and plans to open offices and expand the local team in the region. CEO Changpeng Zhao also shared information about Binance's registration with regulatory authorities in the French market. The company is also seeking registration in more European countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Austria.

On June 13, 2022, Binance announced that users would be unable to withdraw their Bitcoin funds amidst a significant drop in cryptocurrency value (during an unspecified time period). After a two-hour suspension of Bitcoin withdrawals, the withdrawal functionality was restored.

Binance has a strong brand presence in Africa. It sponsored the Africa Cup of Nations in 2021 and has brought cryptocurrency education to many countries on the African continent.

Please note that the information provided is based on the given context and may not encompass the full details or recent developments regarding Binance.

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