A day after the Indian Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized assets worth $8.1 million of cryptocurrency exchange firm WazirX as part of a money laundering probe, a Twitter war broke out between exchange founder Nischal Shetty and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Gaya, both claimed that WazirX is owned by the other.
Shetty says Binance acquired WazirX
Even as the ED accused WazirX of aiding 16 Indian fintech firms, which were already being probed by the agency, in proceeds of crime by transferring funds to undisclosed foreign wallets, WazirX founders Nischal Shetty stated that WazirX has been acquired by Binance and Changpeng Zhao Led Exchange operates crypto to crypto pairs, processes crypto withdrawals.
I can shut down WazirX if I want: Changpeng Zhao
Responding to Shetty, Zhao said he could shut down WazirX if he wanted to, but would not as it would harm users.
He further added that Binance provides wallet services for WazirX and that the domain control of the Indian crypto exchange is with Binance.
“We were given shared access to an AWS account. We can shut down WazirX. But we can’t, because it hurts users,” Zhao said.
As stated earlier, “Binance does not have control over the operations, including user sign-up, KYC, initiating trading and withdrawals. This is controlled by the founding team of WazirX. It was never transferred despite our requests. The deal was never closed. No share xfers,” he said.
Zhao said that the founding team of WazirX retained control over the operation of the platform and that Binance was never given control of the data or users.
“We at WazirX would love to work with ED to fix these issues,” Zhao added.
Interestingly, the ED criticized Binance for not responding to its questions regarding the investigation for Binance.
“WazirX operates from cloud-based software (@AWS Mumbai), all employees work from home, the registered office is a 2 chair co-working space, and all crypto-crypto transactions are controlled by Binance {which without any K again has known office, no known employees and rarely answers questions at legal@binance.com},” according to the ED.
Binance has full control over WazirX AWS servers: Shetty
Arguing his case, Shetty said that Zhao’s statement that he may shut down WazirX proves that he has control over WazirX.
He added that contrary to Zhao’s claim that Binance had shared access to AWS, Shetty said, “You have root access to AWS! Anyone with root access controls AWS. Now only control is Janmai, you can access it.” Why aren’t you taking it?” He asked.
The ED has claimed that WazirX encouraged ambiguity and relaxed anti-money-laundering (AML) norms, helping 16 fintech firms already under investigation by the agency to commit crimes by transferring money to undisclosed foreign wallets. Helped legitimize the proceeds, leading to an estate of $8.1. The search agency has frozen crores.
The agency further stated that WazirX was unable to provide an explanation for the lost crypto asset due to loose regulatory controls over transactions between WazirX and Binance, the lack of blockchain recording of transactions to save money, and the opposite’s failure to record KYC information. was. Purse
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