Binance’s Shanghai office, which once hosted some of the exchange’s top executives, has abruptly closed its doors, forcing employees to either work remotely or relocate to Singapore, several sources close to the matter told The Block.
According to sources, the cryptocurrency exchange’s Shanghai office was recently raided by local police. Sources said many of Binance’s executives along with as many as 100 other employees worked at the office. The cryptocurrency exchange is headquartered in Malta.
Notably, top executives such as CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and CMO Yi He were part of the group that relocated to Singapore, according to sources.
In a tweet dated Nov. 20, Zhao said that office and headquarters are outdated concepts and “time is moving on.”
Different sources within Binance described the circumstances around the raid and office closure in different, at times contradictory ways. When reached for comment, a Binance spokesperson refuted the raid, saying that the exchange doesn’t have “a fixed office in Shanghai.”
“We don’t have entities in China, most of us work remotely in China,” said the spokesperson. Binance’s denial of the mere existence of a Chinese office comes despite The Block having seen photographs of the office as part of conversations with Binance representatives about the location in question.
When Beijing office?
In October, it was reported that Binance planned to open a new office in Beijing in addition to its Shanghai location. However a Binance spokesperson subsequently denied that the exchange has any China-based offices, and sources with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed to The Block that the exchange has no immediate plans to move into Beijing. In an interview with Bloomberg, Zhao dismissed Binance’s Beijing office as “a rumor.”
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