Against the background of tightening KYC requirements, the Bitcoin exchange Binance has lost only 3% of users, and cooperation with regulators is already bearing fruit. The head of the company Changpeng Zhao spoke about this in an interview.
Binance bought back an ad in the Financial Times this week. The exchange has published a set of "10 fundamental rights of crypto users".
According to Zhao, the company decided to publish the list after dialogues with various regulators. He noted that this summary reflects Binance's position on this issue. The exchange shared similar considerations, presented in a more detailed form, with the relevant government agencies.
Earlier, financial regulators of some countries, including the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, and several others, issued warnings to investors regarding the company's activities.
Against this backdrop, the CEO of Binance issued an open letter in which he spoke about the exchange's plans to ensure compliance and protect customers.
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In August, the company introduced mandatory user verification. According to Zhao, there is a "small group of people" who did not like this decision, but 97% of users undergo KYC procedures.
“This is a free market. There are other platforms they could use as well. At Binance, we have decided to go down the path of full compliance and mandatory KYC for global users for every feature. Most people feel more comfortable using a licensed exchange,” he said.
Zhao stressed that "face-to-face meetings" are important in dialogue with regulators. He said that as the coronavirus restrictions are lifted in different countries, he is trying to make more work travel.
Zhao said that investors are interested in Binance - the company even negotiated with some, but the matter did not go beyond these discussions. In this regard, the CEO considers the various assessments that appear in the media to be “highly subjective”.
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The head of the company noted the popularity of projects based on the play-to-earn concept. He stressed that there are other models like study-to-learn, and in the future, the community will see even more "innovative use cases where you can do anything to make money."
Binance also makes a big bet on fan tokens, finding them interesting. Zhao stressed that he is trying to devote some of his time to studying these projects.