“One of the many strengths that our employees at Binance must possess is thick skin. After all, this industry is the subject of a lot of negative sentiment (much of it is unwarranted, but it’s the reality right now). In recent months, our thick skin has been tested by a noticeable increase in attacks on our company’s reputation. These come from both the media and behind closed doors in meetings with policymakers.”
So begins the lengthy post that appeared on Binance’s corporate blog to denounce the disinformation campaign that has been underway for some time to discredit the company in the eyes of users and investors.
Binance attacked by misinformation
In July, the company sued Bloomberg for defamation, which had called the exchange a Ponzi scheme.
According to Binance’s CEO, some media and competitors have long been acting to discredit the company’s name in every way, dismissively calling it a company secretly controlled by the Chinese government, whereas as explained in the blog after the expansion it has had in recent years, most of the employees would now be European and American.
According to Changpeng Zhao, some competing companies would set up ad hoc information sites with the specific aim of targeting other exchanges, especially Binance itself, which is still regarded as the world’s top exchange.
“We are the largest crypto exchange and Web3 company on the planet. With that comes a great responsibility and an expectation of facing additional scrutiny. However, it’s important to remember that our industry is still in its infancy.”
the company proudly reiterates in the post written by CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao.
In the post, the company explains how the cryptocurrency sector has seen a lot of development in Asia, especially in China itself, which soon realized the great potential of cryptocurrencies to counter especially the dominance of the dollar in global financial markets.
Here, then, even the Chinese government’s crackdown policies, according to Zhao, are only window dressing
“While the Chinese government maintained a stern public position on crypto, it quietly, behind the scenes, helped bolster the fledgling industry and supported its growth within its borders. The best Web3-curious engineers and investors flocked to Shanghai and Hong Kong.”
Zhao traces his personal story of emigrating to Canada when he was only 12 years old with his parents from Hefei University of Science and Technology, not without difficulty considering that Zhao recounts how they spent entire nights standing in line at the Canadian embassy.
But this experience was crucial to his maturation and growth both personally and professionally.
It was precisely the explosion in 2005 of the tech sector in China that convinced him to move back to China, to Shanghai, to open a tech start-up.
In Shanghai, he bought an apartment, which he later resold to invest the proceeds in Bitcoin and then begin his billion-dollar adventure with Binance.
“Two years before Binance, I started a company called Bijie Tech, providing exchange-as-a-service platforms to other exchanges. We got 30 clients on board, and business was good. They were mostly exchanges of art and items like stamps, baseball cards, etc.”
Zhao recounts.
Unfortunately, in March 2017, the Chinese government shut down all these exchanges, but out of this bad experience came the idea for Binance, which was launched on September 4, 2017.
After the Chinese ban, Binance moved its operations overseas, and most of the employees relocated, becoming the global company it is today.
Coming out of China, Binance faced many accusations from regulators halfway around the world of operating without a license.
Britain and Japan have banned the exchange from operating on their territory.
Because of this, in recent months the Chinese exchange has obtained permits to operate in several states, including Italy and France.
Zhao then tells the story of Guangying Chen, who according to some media sites is the real head of Binance put there by the Chinese government, when in fact he is only a manager of the company with which Zhao has been working since 2010.
“Binance was never incorporated in China. Nor do we operate like a Chinese company culturally. We have subsidiaries in many countries, including France, Spain, Italy, UAE, and Bahrain (to name a few). But we don’t have any legal entities in China, and we do not have plans to. I believe it’s critical today that we come forward with these facts.”
Zhao writes in the post.
“My favorite are the news stories that go out of their way to note that I am a “Chinese Canadian CEO” or, even better, “born in China, educated in Canada.” I am a Canadian citizen, period.”
the Binance CEO concludes the post.
