Reports said that Abu Dhabi’s Global Market (ADGM) and Financial Services Regulatory Authority have granted cryptocurrency exchange Binance clearance to offer its services in the region.
It has been reported by an official announcement from the United Arab Emirates capital’s financial center that Binance will be cleared to offer cryptocurrency custodial services to professional clients once it has met the requirements for its Financial Services Permission.
However, the news came after Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) attended the Abu Dhabi Finance Week. CZ appeared onstage alongside Galaxy Digital CEO and investor Mike Novogratz at the event for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the aftermath of the ongoing FTX bankruptcy.
The report said that Binance had already gained a foothold in Abu Dhabi after being granted in-principle approval from ADGM in April 2022. This gave the exchange the go-ahead to operate as a broker-dealer for cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
While Binance looks set to begin offering its exchange services to customers in Abu Dhabi, the announcement had its detractors. Chief among those was economist and cryptocurrency critic Nouriel Roubini, who made disparaging remarks about the regulatory clearance afforded to Binance during a separate panel at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
Roubini said:
“Unfortunately, this is an ecosystem that is totally corrupt. I think this is a lesson from the last few weeks, and I think these people should be out of here. I can’t believe [Zhao] and Binance has a license to operate in the UAE.”
Thus, Binance has had an intriguing role to play amid the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire. CZ held initial talks with its competitor to bail out FTX, but closer scrutiny of the company’s financials saw the deal fall through before FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Source: Cointelegraph