- Binance won three key licenses to operate in Abu Dhabi.
- The move is the firm's closest step towards establishing a formal HQ.
- Still, the company told DL News that a headquarters doesn't quite fit.
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Hey all, Liam here.
On Sunday, Binance announced that its global business had received approval to operate in Abu Dhabi.
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi licensed three of the companies’ entities, Binance said in a statement.
They are an exchange, a clearing house, and a broker-dealer — pretty much everything you’d need for spot and derivatives trading, custody, and over-the-counter services.
It will operate under the name “Binance.com.”
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng called the move “an important milestone” for the company.
The development raises a question: Did Abu Dhabi suddenly become Binance’s official headquarters?
A company spokesperson didn’t quite answer the question.
“An HQ is a physical or symbolic concept that doesn’t fully capture how Binance operates,” they told DL News on Monday. “It feels a bit old-fashioned to us.”
“This license is about regulatory clarity and legitimacy, not about centralising our global business in one location.”
While seemingly straightforward, Binance has dodged the question of a formal headquarters since its inception.
But as it has grown into the biggest crypto exchange on the planet, regulators and politicians are calling for clarity.
Other crypto exchanges don’t seem to struggle with answering that question. Coinbase announced in November that it was moving its headquarters to Texas. Kraken moved to Wyoming in June.
Yet Binance has so far opted for obfuscation whenever the topic has come up.
After its founder, Changpeng Zhao, launched the exchange in Shanghai in 2017, a crypto ban in mainland China forced him to move the business to Japan.
From there, the company moved to Malta, then set up corporate registrations in the Cayman Islands and Seychelles. It attempted to set up shop in Singapore in 2021, but eventually withdrew its licence application.
Since then, it’s turned to the United Arab Emirates, namely Dubai.
Instead of a global headquarters, company leadership has typically incorporated various firms in places where Binance was operating.
‘Operations remain distributed’
That’s become a problem.
Back in 2023, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission pointed to the company’s lack of a headquarters when it charged Zhao and several Binance entities with willful evasion of federal law.
“Zhao has stated that Binance’s headquarters is wherever he is located at any point in time, reflecting a deliberate approach to attempt to avoid regulation,” the CFTC said.
During an internal meeting, the agency said, Zhao explained that the company has operations incorporated in different jurisdictions to “keep countries clean [of violations of law],” adding that’s the reason the company hasn’t landed anywhere.
Now, with the latest agreement with Abu Dhabi, the free economic zone is increasingly looking like Binance’s global headquarters.
It is, after all, planning to operate its entire global exchange business there through those three ADGM-regulated entities. And that’s nine months after the Abu Dhabi-backed investment group MGX invested $2 billion into the exchange.
His Excellency Ahmed Jasmin Al Zaabi, the chairman of Abu Dhabi Global Market, issued a king’s greeting to the $13 billion exchange.
“We are pleased to welcome Binance, a key global player in digital assets and financial innovation, to ADGM,” he said.
Teng, who also served as ADGM’s CEO for six years, attempted to address the question.
He said that while Binance’s “global operations remain distributed,” the licensing approval gives the exchange a “regulatory foundation.”
“We are a global, remote-first business with people and operations all over the world,” the company spokesperson said.
Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Get in touch at liam@dlnews.com.