Binance Seeks German Regulators to Continue its Push into Europe

Last year, binance was rebuked by regulators for providing tokens to track U.S. stocks without providing an investor prospectus. After that, binance sought to please the German financial authorities and promote its business in the country again.

Following approval from the French government earlier this month, binance is seeking to regain the favor of Bafin, the German financial regulator. Zhao CHANGPENG, chief executive of binance, said at the finance forward financial technology conference held in Germany on Wednesday: “our team must be discussing with regulators here and throughout Europe. I haven’t talked directly with them myself, but according to the second feedback I got from our team, things are going well.”

He said that binance hopes to obtain a license in Germany according to Bafin rules. However, he was reluctant to disclose the details of confidential communications between binance and regulators.

Continue to Promote the G-7

After the market regulator in Paris approved it to operate as a digital asset service provider, binance continued to promote to the member countries of the group of seven. “This is a huge progress,” Zhao said at the time. Binance has previously obtained operating licenses in Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Competitors FTX and Kraken received green lights in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Zhao announced an investment of US $105 million in the blockchain industry in France and promised to hire 250 people to develop infrastructure.

BaFin Warns Binance

Last year, Bafin warned binance that the cryptocurrency platform began to provide tokens linked to the shares of Tesla, MicroStrategy, Microsoft and apple without “issuing an investor prospectus”, that is, a disclosure containing legally required information written in an easy to understand manner.

Binance intends to provide these tokens to customers outside the United States, China and Turkey to “trade equity through cryptocurrency” and use tokens “representing shares of stock companies”, but without some benefits such as voting rights. Cm equity, the investment group that handles these tokens, said the investment prospectus was unnecessary because stock tokens could not be transferred to another person like stocks.

Bafin warned binance at the time that it could face fines of up to 5 million euros, or 3% of the previous year’s annual turnover.