After global crypto crackdown, Binance promises to double international compliance team by 2021 end

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance plans on doubling its compliance team and said it will “humbly welcome more capable talents” as it faces a blizzard of global regulatory probes.

Around the world, regulators are worried about criminals using cryptocurrencies as a conduit for money laundering and about investors falling victim to scams in the red-hot sector.

Authorities in Britain, Japan, Germany, and Thailand have raised concerns about the exchange, one of the largest, amid a worldwide crackdown on cryptocurrencies this year.

Britain’s financial watchdog last month barred Binance from carrying out regulated activities in the country. Japan’s regulator has said Binance was operating there illegally and Germany’s watchdog has warned it risked fines for offering tokens connected to stocks.

Reacting to the development, Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao said Binance’s international compliance team and advisory board had grown “by 500 percent since last year” and planned to double by the end of 2021, without giving figures for intended hires.

Binance, which offers spot crypto trading, derivatives, trade in tokenised versions of stocks, and its own cryptocurrency Binance Coin, has an opaque structure and has rapidly grown into a giant as the popularity of cryptocurrency trading has exploded.

“Binance has grown very quickly and we haven’t always got everything exactly right,” Changpeng Zhao said in a letter posted on the company website.

The letter is the company’s most fulsome response to the flurry of regulatory attention that has come while monthly trading volumes over the exchange have soared to more than $660 billion in June, according to data from CryptoCompare.

Zhao made no reference to any such probe but said scrutiny of the mostly unregulated industry showed it was “maturing”.

“The adoption and development of crypto have many parallels with that of the car,” Zhao wrote.

“When the car was first invented, there weren’t any traffic laws, traffic lights, or even safety belts. Laws and guidelines were developed along the way,” he said. “Crypto is similar.”

“Our vision is to increase freedom and inclusion for a better human society,” Zhao wrote. “We humbly welcome more capable talents and experienced advisers to join us to build better.”