The Regulator of Cayman Islands is Investigating Binance

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The regulador of the Cayman Islands, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), has said that Binance lacks the necessary license to operate a cryptocurrency exchange business from or within its territory in spite of the fact that the company has announced it not offers its services in the islands.

Through to an announcement published today, the CIMA reports that neither Binance nor any of its associated companies (Binance Group or Binance Holdings Limited) have received a license from the watchdog to offer its crypto business. The document reads:

“The Authority is currently investigating whether Binance, the Binance Group, Binance Holdings Limited or any other company affiliated with this group of companies has any activities operating in or from within the Cayman Islands which may fall within the scope of the Authority’s regulatory oversight.”

The cryptocurrency exchange has responded with the following statements:

“Binance.com has always operated in a decentralized manner. Binance.com does not run a cryptocurrency exchange out of the Cayman Islands, as reported incorrectly in some media articles previously. We do however, have entities incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands performing activities that are permitted by law and not related to operating crypto-exchange trading activities. We will work with regulators to address any questions they may have.”

However, it is worth taking into consideration that Binance Holdings Limited is actually registered as a business entity in the islands, as can be seen in the screenshot below:

The regulator says that any company running a crypto exchange business must comply with at least one of the following 2 requirements:

• Must be registered or licensed “in accordance with the Virtual Asset (Service Providers) Act, 2020 (“VASPA”).

• Must be an existing regulated company that is already granted a waiver by the CIMA under the VASPA.