The debacle between the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Zanmai, the operator behind the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, continues in a new blog post from Binance banning the latter from using its services.
On February 3, Binance released a post acknowledging an ongoing “public debate” with Zanmai regarding Binance’s claims of involvement in WazirX. Binance said on January 26 it gave WazirX an ultimatum to retract its statements and continue using the Binance wallet service or stop using it.
According to the announcement, Zanmai did not make the revocation and now has until February 3, 2023, 23:59 UTC, to remove all funds from the account used for WazirX operations.
Binance clarified that at the time of writing, Zanmai has funds remaining in the Binance wallet that are being used for operational purposes.
This comes less than a month after WazirX announced that it has 90% of user funds in Binance wallets, while the remaining 10% are in cold storage wallets.
The announcement comes after several cryptocurrency exchanges released proof of their reserves due to the FTX scandal.
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WazirX is the largest crypto exchange in India. However, it has found itself in hot water with local authorities over the past year. Indian authorities have accused the exchange of helping launder about $130 million.
At the time of the investigation, millions of user funds were frozen in the exchange. At this time, Binance publicly began to distance itself from the Indian exchange, which was in the form of a tweet from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who clarified that Binance has no ownership of the exchange.
Shortly after this statement, Binance took the side of the local authorities in India during the investigation of WazirX and removed the off-chain transfer of funds with the exchange.