Suspicions are growing over CommEx, the mystery buyer of Binance’s Russian arm, as the newly formed company continues to deny Binance’s ownership involvement.
September 29, CommEx release In an open letter to the community, reiterating that the company is not owned by Binance, Binance announced its exit from Russia by selling the company to CommEx.
CommEx wrote on its website: “While we do not disclose our UBO, we want to make it clear that we are not affiliated with Binance.” A spokesperson for CommEx declined to speak to Cointelegraph about why it does not share any information about its owners. Comment.
“We are a dynamic and efficient start-up team composed of dozens of passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds,” CommEx said in the announcement, adding that some of its core members are former Binance veterans.
The CommEx announcement said the company has been developing its platform for six months, during which time it has hired a number of former Binance employees. “This allows us to learn from Binance’s products and operational experience and establish an indirect relationship with them,” CommEx added.
The announcement confirms that former team members from Binance’s Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) unit are part of CommEx, although Binance has no ownership stake in the exchange.
Former employees of Binance CIS will join or may have joined the new company, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on X (formerly Twitter) on September 28. “We think this is a good thing,” he added.
Some answers about Binance/CommEx.
Cryptocurrency transfers will occur between Binance and CommEx when users migrate with their funds. Older transactions still exist during the testing phase of the integration. This is expected.
Some former Binance CIS team members may join their team,…
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 28, 2023
In addition to hiring some former Binance employees, CommEx also took things like design, application programming interfaces or APIs, and even terms of use from Binance. “We require this to ensure a smooth user experience,” CZ wrote.
Binance CEO also emphasized that CommEx does not provide services to users in the United States and Europe. CZ noted that European and U.S. residents will face intellectual property rights and “know your customer” restrictions when trying to access CommEx. “These are the terms we asked for in the deal,” CZ said.
according to CommEx users can trade up to 2 Bitcoin (BTC), for about $54,000, without completing KYC checks, according to data from a CommEx representative on the company’s official Telegram group.
related: Binance’s successor in Russia: Everything you need to know about CommEx so far
CommEx’s reluctance to disclose information about its owner, coupled with Binance’s former employees and similar website design and API, has sparked discussions about Binance’s disguised owner.
Adam Cochran, partner at venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, believe CommEx is “just another Binance shell company.”
On the other hand, some cryptocurrency observers believe that this move will undermine Binance’s entire decision to leave Russia. “Obviously, the U.S. authorities can quickly determine whether the new owner is just a straw man for Binance. This will make the situation look worse than Binance continuing to retain the business.” David Lesperance, founder of Lesperance & Associates, told Cointelegraph.
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