Binance founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in a post on X (formerly Twitter) tried to explain the mysteries surrounding CommEX, the new entity that bought Binance’s Russia business as the world’s largest crypto exchange made a complete exit from the sanction-hit country. CZ also made it clear that he is neither the owner nor have any stake in CommEX.
“I am not their UBO [ultimate beneficial owner], nor do I own any shares there. The deal does not have any buy back options. (A google search seem to show some businesses like Mercedes, McDonalds, Nissan have buy back options in their Russia sell off deal. This is not the case here.),” he said on X.
The mystery about CommEX deepens as the exchange doesn’t reveal who owns it. Nor is there any clarity about the team that runs it. Binance, too, has not provided any detail about CommEX’s ownership except that it doesn’t have any stake in the newly-minted crypto exchange.
“A few ex-Binance CIS team members may join their team, or have already done so. We think that is a good thing,” CZ explained, adding that their design, APIs, etc are similar to Binance as it asked for this to ensure a smooth user experience.
“CommEx does not service US or EU users. They have IP and KYC blocks. This is a term we asked for in the deal,” CZ added.
