Binance CEO announces timeline for public listing
The CEO of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has announced a possible roadmap for an Initial Public Offering.
CEO Changpeng Zhao said “Binance.US is just going to do what Coinbase did” announcing plans to list the company on an exchange in the next three to five years depending on market conditions.
In comments made to The Information, Zhao said the company is also set to close a large private investment round in the next two months that would significantly reduce his control on the board.
A listing on a US exchange would come as a major triumph for Binance which has faced increasing pressure from worldwide regulators in recent months.
In June, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning about Binance on its website stating that the company lacks “any form of UK authorisation, registration or licence to conduct regulated activity in the UK.” The watchdog has since said that it is “not capable” of supervising Binance owing to its sprawling structure and lack of cooperation with FCA investigators.
Regulators in Hong Kong, Japan and the Cayman Islands have also issued warnings about the company while major banks blocked payments to the site for UK customers following the FCA’s comments.
In response Binance, which handled $29.7bn worth of trades in the past 24 hours, has vowed to pivot towards a proactive regulatory approach even hiring a series of compliance experts, including a former US treasury cyber crime expert, in a bid to pacify financial watchdogs.
Bincance’s rival Coinbase, which listed on the Nasdaq exchange in April, has seen its shares climb by 12.96 per cent this month following a rocky period during May’s crypto market correction.
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