The no love lost between Binance and India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, WaxirX took another turn on Friday.
In a blog post, Binance distanced itself from WazirX, stating that WazirX will no longer have access to its services.
It would be recalled that WazirX claim relationship with Binance on several occasions, an insinuation Binance rejected. Last year, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted that Binance has no ownership of the exchange.
“Binance only provides wallet services for WazirX as a tech solution. There is also integration using off-chain tx to save on network fees. WazirX is responsible for all other aspects of the WazirX exchange, including user sign-up, KYC, trading and initiating withdrawals”. CZ tweeted.
Although the world’s largest cryptocurrency by trade volume, Binance, acknowledged that WazirX holds a significant part of its fund in Binance Wallet, the company nonetheless denied any involvement in the management and operation of WazirX. WazirX holds 90% of its users’ funds in Binance wallets.
This turn of event caught people by surprise as WazirX was reportedly acquired by Binance in 2019, and ever since then, the Indian crypto exchange has been referred to as “Binance-owned”. However, a subsequent tweet by CZ stated otherwise, claiming that the acquisition never went through.
Investors King gathered that the hostility between the two crypto exchange companies was a result of an allegation of money laundering levelled against WazirX by the Indian government.
In 2022, local authorities in India accused WazirX of aiding in money laundering to the tune of $130 million. This investigation led to the freezing of several accounts on the exchange.
Meanwhile, Binance has advised all crypto users to DYOR (do your own research) while trading or storing their digital assets.
“We wish to remind everyone in the community to always do your own due diligence when deciding where to securely store your digital fund”. The company noted in the same blog post.
