After the FTX fiasco, the cryptocurrency industry is back in the spotlight as the founder and CEO of the world’s best crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has stepped down after pleading guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws.
This will affect Indian investors as many of them have shifted to overseas exchanges like Binance to trade after the imposition of taxes.
Sumit Gupta, CoinDCX co-founder and CEO, said that the cryptocurrency ecosystem is not just about trading and what happens on centralized exchanges around the world. The resilience shown by the web3 and virtual digital asset industry needs to be recognized.
“The web3 and blockchain space continues to grow strongly and many web2 companies are also making extensive use of this technology. The dynamic nature of this space means that it will continue to evolve, while remaining steadfastly committed to innovation, compliance and overall sustainability,” he said.
Esya Center recently said in a report that the current taxation structure for cryptocurrencies could lead to a loss of 99.3 lakh crore of trading volume on local exchanges over the next four years. Around Rs 32,000 crore was transferred from domestic VDA exchanges to overseas exchanges in February-October 2022.
“Recent developments send a strong message to the entire crypto industry: compliance is now a top priority. This is a significant shift, indicating that while the technology has matured, the hurdles are gradually being overcome,” said Neeraj Khandelwal, CoinDCX & Okto co-founder.
On Site X, Changpeng Zhao stated, “Today I stepped down as CEO of Binance. Admittedly, it wasn’t emotionally easy to let me go. But I know it is the right thing to do. I have made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. It’s the best thing for our community, for Binance, and for myself.”
When Binance first launched, it didn’t have compliance controls adequate for the company it was quickly becoming, and it should have. Binance was growing at an extremely fast pace globally, in a new and emerging industry that was in the early stages of regulation, and Binance made some poor decisions along the way. Today, Binance takes responsibility for this past chapter, the exchange said in a statement.
