Binance Bans WazirX From Using Its Services

The ongoing dispute between the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Zanmai, the operator behind the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, continues with a new blog post claiming that Binance is prohibiting WazirX from making use of its services. This is the latest development in the ongoing conflict between the two parties.

Binance published a statement on February 3 in which it recognised the continuing "public dispute" that it is having with Zanmai about Zanmai's assertions that Binance is involved in operating WazirX. On January 26, Binance said that it has given WazirX the ultimatum of retracting its remarks and continuing to use Binance wallet services or terminating its use. WazirX chose to continue utilising Binance wallet services.

According to the notification, Zanmai did not reverse their statement, and the company now has until February 3, 2023 at 23:59 UTC to withdraw all of their cash from the accounts that are utilised for WazirX activities.

At the time this article was written, Binance explained that Zanmai had monies that are still present in Binance wallets that are being utilised for operational reasons.

This comes less than a month after WazirX disclosed that it stores 90% of the cash belonging to its customers in wallets associated with Binance, while the remaining 10% are kept in wallets associated with cold storage.

This declaration was made after a number of cryptocurrency exchanges published proofs-of-reserves in response to the issue involving FTX.

The biggest cryptocurrency exchange in India is called WazirX. In spite of this, it has been getting into trouble with the local authorities over the course of the last year. The Indian authorities accused the exchange of helping to launder around 130 million dollars worth of illicit funds.

During the time that the inquiry was ongoing, the exchange had froze the access to millions of dollars worth of user cash. It was at this time that Binance started openly distancing itself from the Indian exchange. This was done in the form of a tweet from the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, who stated that Binance does not control the exchange.

Binance quickly took the side of the Indian authorities conducting the investigation into WazirX and disabled the ability to conduct off-chain financial transactions with the exchange once this announcement was made.