Binance has reached out to Zanmai Labs, the company running WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, to make arrangements for the withdrawal of any assets left in Binance wallets, as stated in a blog post published on Friday.
This move is said to put an end to concerns regarding the fate of customer funds in the event of Binance and WazirX discontinuing their partnership.
According to Binance, Zanmai has not fully withdrawn the assets kept in Binance wallets used for WazirX’s operations.
We have invited Zanmai to work out arrangements with us to withdraw any remaining assets in the relevant accounts after February 3rd. However, the responsibility ultimately lies with the Zanmai team to make the withdrawals expeditiously, Binance said.
What happened?
The ownership of WazirX is a mystery in the digital asset world. Binance announced in 2019 that they acquired WazirX and CEO Changpeng Zhao talked about the exchange’s success over the next three years.
But last year, Indian authorities accused WazirX of money laundering and took action against the exchange. Binance distanced themselves from WazirX and changed the blog post to say that the acquisition was just for certain assets and intellectual property.
Since then, CZ and Binance have been arguing with the WazirX team, led by Nischal Shetty, on social media. Recently, leaked emails showed that Binance tried to pressure WazirX to clear its name.
Binance sent an email on January 26th demanding that WazirX retract statements made by its founders about Binance’s ownership of the exchange and remove Binance’s name from its references in terms of service and branding materials.
The founder of WazirX, Nischal Schetty, refused to comply, calling the demands unethical and accusing Binance of using pressure and threats to make false statements.
In the recent blog post, Binance stated that it is important for them and the public for Zanmai to stop spreading false information about Binance’s wallet services. Binance gave Zanmai a choice to either retract the false statements or stop using the wallet service.
Since Zanmai refused to correct their misleading statements, Binance gave them until February 3 to remove the funds from their accounts.
As this deadline is near, we recognize that users whose assets are deposited with WazirX might have legitimate concerns about what will happen to their holdings in light of these events. Binance does not have control over Zanmai’s management of WazirX user funds. said the exchange.
