A recent investigation has provided some light on the continuing argument about who actually owns WazirX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The aforementioned discussion is claimed to have begun in 2019, when WazirX’s ownership was undisputed. According to reports, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the world announced its acquisition of WazirX in a blog post. The executives of the Indian exchange then openly discussed the purchase.
On the other hand, the acquisition tale had taken some unexpected turns just last summer when the Indian exchange had some trouble with the Indian government. WazirX’s Mumbai office was seized by Indian authorities in early August of 2022 over claims that the exchange had assisted 16 fintech companies in money laundering.
Binance took urgent precautions and openly dissociated itself from the Indian exchange in light of the aforementioned dispute between WazirX and the Indian government. The blog article that first celebrated Binance’s acquisition of WazirX was then updated.
The CEO of Binance then tweeted that his firm does not have any equity in Zanmai Labs, a company that runs WazirX, and that the acquisition was instead “limited to an agreement to purchase specific assets and intellectual property.”
Additionally, a representative for Binance asserted that rumors linking the company to the acquisition of WazirX were “lies.” After then, there were supposedly months of open discussion between WazirX and Binance about who really owned the aforementioned Indian exchange.
Binance continues to stand by its assertion that the aforementioned acquisition transaction did not close. On the other hand, WazirX executives assert the opposite and even say that they have proof, but they haven’t been seen publicly presenting it—at least, not until lately, when WazirX received its own proof as the dispute was getting personal.
A letter from Binance to WazirX is said to have been sent earlier on January 26th, stating that the Indian exchange must comply with two criteria by the end of this month; otherwise, Binance may decide to discontinue its service agreement with WazirX by the end of the following week.
Additionally the letter required WazirX to post a pre-written “clarificatory statement” that will call into question Nischal Shetty, a co-founder of WazirX, who previously asserted that Binance had acquired the Indian exchange.
Additionally, the aforementioned letter from Binance mandated that WazirX remove any references to Binance from its terms of service. According to reports, WazirX, who goes by the name Zanmai, responded through a letter.
The demand letter was supposedly characterized as “unethical” in the aforementioned letter. The letter from WazirX have also accused Binance of attempting to use “media pressure and threats to force Zanmai into issuing false and misleading statements as ‘clarifications.’”
