Legal documentation in place to prove WazirX owned by Binance: Nischal Shetty

moneycontrol.com:

WazirX founder Nischal Shetty said he has all the legal documents to prove that Binance controls all crypto-to-crypto trading and crypto deposits and withdrawals on the platform.

In an interview with Moneycontrol, Shetty said Zanmai Labs, an Indian entity that operates WazirX, is owned by him and other co-founders and has a licence from Binance for processing rupee transactions. WazirX as a product and a brand is owned by Binance, which acquired it in 2019.

Shetty said there was a banking ban in place when the acquisition took place and after the ban was lifted, an Indian entity was needed for WazirX to process rupee deposits and withdrawals.

“That is when they suggested and we obliged that we use an entity we own and we get a licence from them (Binance) for processing rupee deposits and withdrawals. That is how Zanmai got the licence for WazirX from Binance and you can only give a licence if you own it. That is proof they had acquired WazirX,” he said.

Binance cast the ownership of WazirX in doubt after the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) froze assets worth almost Rs 65 crore of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering involving 16 Indian fintech companies.

However, Changpeng Zhao, chief of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has put out tweets saying it doesn’t own WazirX. In a blog post update on August 5, Binance said “the 2019 ‘acquisition’ described in this blog was limited to an agreement to purchase certain assets and intellectual property of WazirX. Binance did not purchase any equity (and does not own any equity) in Zanmai Labs.”

WazirX-Zanmai connection

Shetty said since Zanmai Labs has a licence from Binance, it is able to run the rupee crypto trading