Never owned WazirX, says Binance CEO after ED raids Zanmai Labs director

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, on Friday said it does not own any equity in Zanmai Labs, the entity operating WazirX and established by the original founders.

In a series of tweets, Changpeng Zhao, founder, and chief executive officer of Binance, said it published a blog post that it had “acquired” WazirX. However, this transaction was never completed and Binance has never at any point owned any shares of Zanmai Labs.

"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 all other aspects of the WazirX exchange, including user sign-up, KYC, trading and initiating withdrawals," he tweeted.

Zhao denied recent allegations about the operation of WazirX and how the platform is managed by Zanmai Labs are of deep concern to Binance, "Binance collaborates with law enforcement agencies all around the world. We would be happy to work with ED in any way possible," he added.

Back in 2019, Binance said it acquired WazirX, and people in India can buy and sell crypto with Indian rupees (INR) on the Binance Fiat Gateway from November 25 onwards.

This comes after the Enforcement Directorate had frozen Rs 64.67 crore worth of bank deposits of WazirX as part of an ongoing money laundering probe against some fraud smartphone-based loan dishing apps "backed by" Chinese funds.

The agency said it conducted raids against Sameer Mhatre, a director of Zanmai Lab Pvt Ltd (which owns WazirX) on August 3 as he was not forthcoming with information being sought from him and was "non-cooperative".