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The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) said Friday that Binance, the Binance Group and Binance Holdings Limited are not “registered, licensed, regulated or otherwise authorized” to operate as a crypto exchange “from or within” the Cayman Islands.
The Cayman Islands’ primary financial services regulator also added that it is investigating whether Binance, Binance Group or Binance Holdings Limited “fall within the scope of the Authority’s regulatory oversight.”
The CIMA said that any company incorporated in the Cayman Islands that provides virtual asset services in or from the Island must either be licensed in accordance with virtual assets regulations, or must have been granted a waiver by CIMA itself.
“Binance.com does not run a cryptocurrency exchange out of the Cayman Islands,” a Binance spokesperson said. “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,” he added.
When asked by Decrypt to detail which entities are incorporated in the Island, performing what activities and under which laws, Binance declined to comment.
In the past two weeks, several international regulators have queried whether the company is compliant with local regulations.
Earlier today, the Thai SEC filed a criminal complaint against Binance for operating a digital asset business without a license.
Yesterday, Singapore’s central bank said that it would follow up with Binance Holdings Ltd following the string of regulatory actions targeting the exchange.
Late last week, the UK Financial Conduct Authority said that Binance’s UK entity, Binance Markets Limited (BML), was prohibited from doing business in the country. A Binance spokesperson told Decrypt that it acquired BML to “own and operate” a bespoke crypto exchange offered to UK customers.
A few days before the FCA’s announcement, Japan’s Financial Services Agency warned that Binance isn’t registered in Japan.
And last July, Malaysia’s Securities Commission said that Binance operated illegally in the country.
Binance is quickly losing its game of long-running game of “regulatory arbitrage.”
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