The offices of Binance Australia, the Australian arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, were searched by the country’s financial markets regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), on Tuesday. This news comes as governments around the world are intensifying their scrutiny of the company’s activities.
According to a Bloomberg report, the ASIC search was part of an ongoing investigation into the now-defunct derivatives business of Binance Australia. Last month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, for violating securities laws.
Brazilian authorities revealed that they are investigating Binance for suspected pyramid schemes, while Binance also dropped its licence application in Austria after German regulators denied it.
At a Twitter Space on Wednesday, CZ admitted that external pressure is hurting the company, “Many of those things are outside of our control, but short term, they have negative impacts on our business.”
Despite the pressure, Binance remains the world’s number one cryptocurrency exchange. However, its global share of crypto spot trading has been decreasing for the past four months, and now stands at a 10-month low of 42%, according to data from CCData.
Binance Australia announced in April that it would shut down its local derivatives exchange while keeping the spot platform open. The cryptocurrency exchange said it closed the derivative positions of numerous Australian users as they were falsely classified as wholesale investors.
A spokesperson for ASIC stated that “We are unable to confirm or deny any operational detail such as possible searches. ASIC’s review of the company is ongoing.” Binance has said it is working with local authorities and its goal is to meet local regulatory standards in order to serve its Australian users in a fully compliant manner.
