The controversy over the ownership of WazirX that flared up in August 2022 seems to be only getting intense with time. Top Binance and WazirX executives have reportedly exchanged letters over the contentious WazirX ownership issue last week.
As per media reports, Binance has written to WazirX officials to issue a “clarification statement” in which WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty retracts from his earlier stance on WazirX ownership. Shetty has reportedly refused to issue such clarification statement.
The latest flare-up comes in the wake of over $67 million reportedly unilaterally withdrawn by Binance as trading fees on the WazirX platform.
As per an email reportedly written by Shetty, “Binance has unilaterally withdrawn a significant amount of moneys (over USD 67 million) which has been earned as trading fees on the WazirX platform.”
“Binance transferred these amounts to an internal account solely controlled by it since Binance owned the WazirX wallets,” he added.
As per WazirX’s latest Proof-of-Reserves data, 90% of its user assets are on Binance-controlled wallets.
Last year, when WazirX was under investigation by Indian law enforcement agencies, Shetty claimed that WazirX’s ownership lies with Binance, a claim that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao promptly denied. The confusion has its origin in a 2019 blog on Binance’s website which claimed that Binance has acquired the Indian crypto exchange.
But CZ explained that the acquisition could not be completed and Binance’s relationship with WazirX is sole of offering technical services such as the wallet service. But CZ insisted that Binance has control over user assets.
Referring to an old tweet by Shetty, Inc42 reports, “… Binance owns WazirX’s domain name, root access to AWS servers, crypto assets and crypto profits.”
