Binance France has undergone a major change in ownership, with new shareholders now holding an equal 100% stake in the company. This move was prompted by a warning issued by the country’s Financial Markets Authority (AMF) in December.
The AMF informed Binance France that it needed to take action due to the issues that arose between the original beneficial owner and the United States Justice Department, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Essentially, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was no longer allowed to own the company.
A blog post revealed that Zhao had already disassociated himself from the company. In November, he pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him in the United States and has since been sentenced to four months in prison. However, he has yet to begin serving his sentence.
Although the new beneficiaries of Binance France have not been named by the company, it has been revealed that they are both members of Binance’s founding team. According to the Pappers information service, these individuals are Lihua He and Yulong Yan. Limited information is available about them.
The Binance white paper suggests that Yan may be Allan Yan, the first product director. Yan was also a co-founder of Bijie Tech, a company established by Zhao before Binance, which provided software to cryptocurrency exchanges. However, Bijie Tech was shut down in 2017. On the other hand, there is no mention of Lihua He in the white paper.
Under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations, a company licensed in one European Union country can extend its license to all 27 member states. It has been reported that Binance received approval from the AMF in May 2022, after operating illegally in France since 2020. The company was also under investigation for Anti-Money Laundering violations prior to Zhao facing charges in the United States.
Binance France has also faced difficulties in finding a banking partner in the country, following the CFTC’s lawsuit against the company in March 2023. In October 2023, executive director Stéphanie Cabossioras joined the growing number of executives who left the company.
In June, Binance was denied a virtual asset service provider license in the Netherlands, and its operations in Belgium were subsequently closed by regulators in the same month.
Given the collapse of FTX, there are increasing concerns about the trustworthiness of crypto exchanges.
Regulatory warning prompts ownership shift at Binance France