Binance

Crypto Exchange Binance Is Making ‘Substantial Changes’ to Become ‘Fully Licensed and Fully Compliant’ in UK

07/12/2021 by Idelto Editor

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has unveiled its plan to become a “fully licensed and fully compliant” exchange in order to serve users in the U.K. The crypto exchange is reportedly “making a number of very substantial changes” in the way it operates in order to comply with the country’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Binance Plans to Launch a Fully Licensed Crypto Exchange in the UK

Binance is working to become a fully licensed and fully compliant cryptocurrency exchange in order to launch in the U.K. where it recently ran into trouble with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The exchange’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), said in an interview with The Telegraph that Binance will reapply for a license with the FCA. He believes that his exchange’s relationship with the British regulator has improved. He told the news outlet:

We’re fully re-engaged there … We’re making a number of very substantial changes in organizational structures, product offerings, our internal processes, and the way we work with regulators.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority issued a consumer warning on Binance in June stating that no entity “in the Binance Group holds any form of U.K. authorization, registration or license to conduct regulated activity in the U.K.” In August, the FCA said that Binance was no longer in violation of its rules but noted that the company has not applied for a license to operate a crypto exchange.

“We want to continue to establish a presence in the U.K. and serve U.K. users in a fully licensed and fully compliant manner,” Zhao emphasized, adding that Binance hopes to become a registered crypto asset firm in six to 18 months.

Following the warning by the FCA, several major banks in the U.K. began restricting payments to Binance, including Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, and Santander.

Besides the FCA, a number of other regulators have issued warnings of various kinds about Binance, including regulators in the U.S., South Africa, Singapore, Australia, Norway, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, India, Malaysia, and Lithuania. In August, Binance said it was making regulatory compliance its top priority.

Zhao further shared with the publication that when regulators asked Binance “a very simple question: ‘Where’s your headquarters?’ and our response was that we have no headquarters, that we’re a decentralized organization, they didn’t know how to work with us.” The CEO concluded:

We understand that now. So now we’re in the process of setting up real offices, legal entities, a proper board, proper governance structures in most places, including the U.K.

What do you think about Binance launching in the U.K. after regulatory trouble with the FCA? Let us know in the comments section below.

Crypto Exchange Binance Explains Its ‘Rare’ Dogecoin Issue — Resumes DOGE Withdrawals

01/12/2021 by Idelto Editor

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has explained its dogecoin issue which resulted in withdrawal suspension and Tesla CEO Elon Musk calling the problem “shady.” The exchange says it was a “rare issue” and no one was at fault.

Binance’s ‘Rare’ Dogecoin Issue, Withdrawals Resumed

Binance explained its dogecoin problem Monday, stating:

What began as a fairly straightforward upgrade, turned into an issue where Binance users were unable to withdraw DOGE for the last 17 days. In addition, 1,634 users were sent old transactions.

“The truth is that a combination of unlikely factors led to an unforeseen issue that ultimately only affected Binance,” the company admitted.

Binance explained that any platform will have the same issue if it had listed dogecoin back in 2019 at v1.14.0, had transactions stuck in the wallet, and had upgraded the wallet to v1.14.2 and then updated it to v1.14.5.

The exchange added: “Unfortunately for Binance, we had inadvertently threaded the needle with all of the above parameters, which led to the coins being re-sent and requiring a new wallet needed to be built.”

Binance emphasized:

No single entity was at fault, neither Binance nor DOGE Network had prior knowledge of this rare issue. So rest assured, as CZ said – no one’s getting fired.

The company noted that it has been working with the Dogecoin Core maintainers “to diagnose, solve, and prevent similar issues from occurring.”

Furthermore, the exchange added that on Saturday, “we tested everything by opening up withdrawals again, but we did it silently to ensure there were no further issues, and now we’re pleased to announce that from today withdrawals are fully open again.”

The DOGE problem at Binance has been widely discussed on social media. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently commented that the problem “sounds shady.” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) argued that Musk was incorrect in his assessment, accusing the Tesla boss of lacking knowledge of the situation.

What do you think about Binance’s dogecoin issue? Let us know in the comments section below.

Binance CEO Says He and Warren Buffett Use Similar Investment Strategy but Doubts Buffett Has Skills to Keep Crypto Safe

27/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance says that he and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett share a similar investment strategy. However, he said he would not convince the Oracle of Omaha to invest in cryptocurrency. “I get worried if he uses crypto. He may not have the necessary skills or the knowledge on how to keep his own crypto safe,” the Binance CEO stressed.

Binance’s CEO on Warren Buffett and Crypto Investing

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) talked about Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and cryptocurrency investing on Yahoo Finance Wednesday.

Zhao recently praised Buffett’s investing skills after reading a book about him titled “Warren Buffett: Inside the Ultimate Money Mind.” The book provides “a deep analysis of Buffett’s essential wisdom, an intricate mosaic of wide-ranging ideas and insights that Buffett calls a Money Mind,” according to its description.

The Binance boss was asked if he were sitting in a room with Buffett, what he would tell the Oracle of Omaha about why he should invest in crypto. Zhao replied:

I wouldn’t convince him to invest in crypto. I think it’s not necessary that everybody has to invest in crypto.

“My mom doesn’t use the internet that much and that’s fine. The internet is fine. My mom is fine,” the Binance executive continued. “I think basically it’s a free world. We don’t have to convince everybody to use crypto. It’s only for the people who want to use crypto.”

He explained that he read the book on Buffett because he reads many investment books. “I recently just stumbled upon it, and it’s a great book, actually,” Zhao emphasized, adding that the Oracle of Omaha “has many investment theses that are timeless. And that still applies to crypto. It’s just that he’s not personally interested in crypto.”

In addition, the Binance executive thinks he and Buffett have similar investing strategies. He explained, as noted in the book, that Buffett is not an investor who likes to diversify his portfolio. Zhao described:

He likes to hold a small number of stocks that he knows well. And he doesn’t want to diversify across hundreds of stocks. That’s very similar to my personal mentality. I only hold BNB and BTC. I don’t diversify myself across different crypto assets.

“Because of his non-diversification, he is not into bitcoin or crypto. That’s fine. We don’t need to convince him,” Zhao emphasized.

“He is not short of money. He is at a different stage of life where I think the learnings, the philosophies, the teachings are valuable to the world,” the Binance executive added. The Berkshire Hathaway CEO “is super successful which I respect a lot,” he added, noting that there is no need to get him into crypto.

In fact, Zhao said he would be worried if Buffett starts using crypto, stating:

I get worried if he uses crypto. He may not have the necessary skills or the knowledge on how to keep his own crypto safe.

Buffett has been a vocal critic of bitcoin and cryptocurrency. He called BTC “rat poison squared” in 2018. He also called the cryptocurrency gambling, a game, and not an investment. His righthand man, Charlie Munger, said bitcoin is “disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization” at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May.

Zhao was also asked about his recent discussion on Twitter with Tesla CEO Elon Musk about Binance’s dogecoin problem. Musk, a proponent of the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin, tweeted Tuesday morning that the Binance’s problem “sounds shady.”

“Well, I don’t intend to be sassy on Twitter,” the Binance boss explained, emphasizing that Musk was “incorrect” and “lacks research.” He continued: “I am not aggressive by nature, but I’m also not submissive or cowardly when it comes to defending our business. I view defending Binance as my job and defending BNB and the crypto industry as my life’s mission.”

Do you agree with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao about Warren Buffett and crypto? Let us know in the comments section below.

US Senator Asks Coinbase, Gemini, Binance, Tether How They’re Protecting Consumers

25/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown has sent letters to cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin issuers, including Coinbase, Gemini, Binance, and Tether, asking how they are protecting consumers and investors. “I have significant concerns with the non-standardized terms applicable to redemption of particular stablecoins,” the senator said.

US Senator Raises Concerns Regarding Stablecoins

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban, announced Tuesday that he has sent letters to a number of crypto exchanges and stablecoin issuers.

Among the recipients of his letters are Coinbase, Gemini, Paxos, Trusttoken, Binance.us, Centre, and Tether.

The senator asked these crypto companies how they “are protecting consumers and investors amid the risks highlighted in the recent report by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.”

The announcement adds: “Senator Brown emphasized the difficulties consumers and investors may face in understanding how stablecoins work and their potential risks, citing the complicated terms and conditions that many companies hide in the fine print.” The senator wrote in one of his letters:

I have significant concerns with the non-standardized terms applicable to redemption of particular stablecoins, how those terms differ from traditional assets, and how those terms may not be consistent across digital asset trading platforms.

The senator asserted that “the purchase of stablecoins through a trading platform may not provide customers with the same rights and entitlements as a direct purchase from an issuer.”

Furthermore, he noted: “Customers may have different rights based on the amount of stablecoins owned or transacted.” Senator Brown also asked six more questions in his letters which can be found here.

What do you think about Senator Sherrod Brown asking crypto exchanges and stablecoin issuers about how they are protecting consumers and investors? Let us know in the comments section below.

Elon Musk Calls Binance’s Dogecoin Problem ‘Shady’ — Says He’s Raising the Issue on Behalf of Other DOGE Holders

25/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has raised concerns with cryptocurrency exchange Binance about its dogecoin issue. Musk calls the situation “shady,” adding that “DOGE holders using Binance should be protected from errors that are not their fault.” Both Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and the official Twitter account for the crypto exchange responded.

Elon Musk Raises Issue on Behalf of Other Dogecoin Holders

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has raised concerns on behalf of dogecoin holders regarding the recent DOGE problem at cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The issue resulted in numerous erroneous dogecoin transactions with some users reporting that their accounts were frozen.

Musk, who is sometimes known as the Dogefather, asked Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), “What’s going on with your Doge customers?” He added, “Sounds shady.” His tweet gained much attention. At the time of writing, it has received 4.5K comments and liked 24.1K times.

Both Zhao and the official Twitter account for Binance replied to the Tesla boss.

The Binance account disagreed with Musk about the situation being shady. “No, not shady — just frustrating and we’re working on it,” the exchange’s official account wrote, pointing the Spacex CEO to another thread with a detailed explanation of the situation it previously posted.

“The root cause is a technical issue during the recent upgrade process that caused old transactions to be resent to 1,674 users,” Binance explained, clarifying that the issue occurred on Binance and not on other crypto trading platforms “because we have a different technical wallet setup for DOGE.” The exchange added:

We have to rebuild the wallet entirely, which is causing a delay that we expect may last another week or so.

While acknowledging that “users who received old transactions” and “users who cannot withdraw DOGE are upset,” Binance requested: “We’ve kindly asked those that receive the old transactions to return them, but we’re aware that select users are having trouble accessing some of the wallets.”

However, Musk argued that dogecoin holders using Binance “should be protected from errors that are not their fault.” He proceeded to point to a thread by Dogecoin Developers explaining the situation.

The CEO of Binance soon joined the discussion. He told Musk that his team is “pretty certain” the problem is “an issue with the latest DOGE wallet,” adding that Binance is in communication with the Dogecoin devs. Zhao then apologized to Musk for any inconvenience the problem may have caused him. He ended his tweet asking Musk about the time when Tesla had a software glitch that prompted a recall of 12,000 vehicles. “What happened here?” he wrote.

Musk replied:

I don’t use Binance (tried at one point, but signup was too many hoops to jump through), so no inconvenience to me personally. Just raising this issue on behalf of other DOGE holders.

“Appreciate it,” Zhao responded. “I overreacted a bit due to the word ‘shady,’” he admitted.

“The KYC part is tedious, and we can’t service U.S. users. You could try Binance.us though,” CZ tried to convince Musk. “Still a tedious signup process, but have DOGE. We are working with their team to fix the issue ASAP.” Musk simply responded with “Sounds good.”

Musk also commented on a thread about centralized crypto exchanges, like Binance and Robinhood, taking custody of people’s cryptocurrencies. Replying to a tweet stating, “Not your keys, not your crypto,” Musk wrote: “Exactly.”

The Tesla CEO previously said that he owns three kinds of cryptocurrencies: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and dogecoin (DOGE). He also confirmed that he does not own any doge rival meme cryptocurrency shiba inu (SHIB). In October, he said the real reason he supports dogecoin is because “it felt like the people’s crypto.”

What do you think about Elon Musk raising concerns on behalf of dogecoin holders with Binance? And, what do you think about Binance’s responses? Let us know in the comments section below.