Changpeng Zhao’s company Binance is everywhere and yet based nowhere. The cryptocurrency exchange has processed trillions of dollars in trades this year as it transfers digital and conventional money around the world through a constellation of affiliates. And yet it has no headquarters.
Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, the company has grown at extraordinary speed into a leading player in the fledgling industry. But the 44-year-old Canadian-Chinese mogul’s business empire is now attracting intense scrutiny from global watchdogs as they grapple with new financial entities that act in many jurisdictions but are rooted in none.
Binance has led a peripatetic life since its founding by Zhao, who goes by the moniker “CZ” (pronounced ‘Sea-Zee’), in China four years ago. The company shifted its operations after a broad crypto crackdown by Chinese authorities in 2017. After it landed in Japan, regulators warned in 2018 it was doing unauthorised trading in cryptocurrencies in the country. Malta’s then prime minister Joseph Muscat welcomed Binance with open arms that year, but in 2020 its financial regulator proclaimed that despite the company’s operations in the EU state, it was not responsible for regulating the exchange.