Reports that Binance lost billions of dollars in revenue and 90 percent of its users after adopting KYC are false, according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ).
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao “CZ” took to Twitter to dispute a CoinDesk report that the cryptocurrency exchange had lost billions of dollars in revenue and 90 percent of its users after adopting the Know Your Customer (KYC) policy. The chief executive officer of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world said that the whole thing was a misquote and that it is unfortunate that headlines such as that resulted in more traffic.
“It’s a complete misquote… the fact is, this type of headline sells more clicks… Sad, but true.”
He further said:
“Binance spent more than $1 billion on Compliance efforts, with a high % pass rate. It’s fine. Binance’s market share increased, not decreased. The blockchain & 3rd party data shows it.”
According to the CoinDesk article, members of the Binance compliance team Tigran Gambaryan and Matthew Price, who had previously worked as investigators for the cybercrime unit of the United States Internal Revenue Service, told Coindesk that the exchange’s stricter KYC policies had resulted in a financial burden for the company. According to the article, Gambaryan was quoted to have said that Binance has “lost 90% of customers after implementing KYC, losing billions in revenue.”
Binance Global Head of Sanctions, Chagri Poyraz, said that the CEO would never act unethically. Gambaryan continued by pointing out that Binance started as a modest firm but has now become a significant platform in the cryptocurrency industry.
Recall that precisely one year ago, Binance made the controversial decision to lower the maximum withdrawal amount of Bitcoin. Users who do not complete KYC (know your customer) were allowed to withdraw 0.06 BTC instead of 2 Bitcoin daily.
Furthermore, in related developments, Binance overtook Coinbase to become the exchange with the most Bitcoin held in the world due to enhanced public relations efforts and receiving full regulatory permission in Dubai in March, Bahrain in May, France, and Italy in May, and Spain in July 2022.
About Author
