Binance - where is it located?

[Kryptowerk]

I never thought about it much, but today I was wondering where Binance was located. Googling didn't bring up the results I was expecting.

https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2022/05/where-is-binance-located/

“Wherever I sit, is going to be the Binance office. Wherever I need somebody, is going to be the Binance office.”
Shin pressed the issue further, leading Zhao to say that he was not trying to “obfuscate” or “hide,” the company’s location, and that Binance was “in the open.”

There are some addresses pointing towards Malta or Cayman Islands, however no clear public info about their official headquaters to be found.
Checking wikipedia, some pages say they are not registered/unknow, some say "Society of Delaware". 

How does a company like Binance pay taxes (if at all?) and under which law are they to respond to any disbutes?

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[jackg]

If you want a dispute to be heard, I'd imagine you'd go after them in the strictest place they are regulated. I thought their head office was in Singapore and that they were a Singaporean country but I could be wrong on that one.

They have a lot of addresses (they probably share them with other companies too and just accept correspondence there).

Their ceo can say what they want about not trying to hide the company's head office, it's still pretty well hidden if no one knows where it is. There's a chance the company itself is decentralised but then I don't know how you'd trust your board so much in that situation.

[mk4]

How does a company like Binance pay taxes (if at all?) and under which law are they to respond to any disbutes?

Well, they definitely are pushing the boundaries of being in the legally gray area, so legal disputes would probably be a nightmare unless you're using something like Binance US, etc. which should have offices in their respective states.

[stompix]

Well, I think what this is is the beauty of the blockchain, right, so you don’t have to … like where’s the Bitcoin office, because Bitcoin doesn’t have an office. -CZ

So there you have it.

There are some addresses pointing towards Malta or Cayman Islands, however no clear public info about their official headquaters to be found.

Binance Holdings Limited is registered in the Cayman Islands, but they are not licensed by the CIMA to operate a cryptocurrency exchange there, so they use that Cayman-based shell company to run other Ltds in different countries. There is no office and no license in Malta either.

Checking wikipedia, some pages say they are not registered/unknow, some say "Society of Delaware". 

That's Binance.us, incorporated in Delaware, again a virtual office.

How does a company like Binance pay taxes (if at all?) and under which law are they to respond to any disbutes?

They don't and they don't again! Don't worry, funds are #SAFU, /s!

[Darker45]

I suppose not much has changed after all these years. I remember years ago CZ was interviewed and he also said something like they're everywhere. In other words, they don't have a base or a headquarter. I suppose much of their employees are scattered across the world working on a remote basis. But I guess they have registered offices in different countries. Official and legal communications could use their addresses. Not to mention that other Binance entities have their own headquarters.

[coinerer]

How does a company like Binance pay taxes (if at all?) and under which law are they to respond to any disbutes?

According to them they have no head office.  They still keep it decentralized. They have established their boards in several countries. No one can directly say where their headquarters is as they have employees from different countries and they don't have a specific head office. So it's hard to say which country they pay tax to but for Binance.us they definitely pay tax to us government.

[Die_empty]

I suppose not much has changed after all these years. I remember years ago CZ was interviewed and he also said something like they're everywhere. In other words, they don't have a base or a headquarter. I suppose many of their employees are scattered across the world working on a remote basis. But I guess they have registered offices in different countries. Official and legal communications could use their addresses. Not to mention that other Binance entities have their headquarters.

Like you rightly pointed out Binance is like a system with different parts in different countries working together to achieve the firm's goals and objectives. These subsidiaries are registered in their host nation where they operate according to the laws of the nation. Concerning the location of the headquarters it looks like the firm keeps moving it from one country to another based on how favorable the laws on cryptocurrencies are. It has been moved from China, Japan, and currently the Cayman Islands. But like Zhao rightly said Binance doesn't need a postal address because the most trusted coin doesn't have one. So you are using Binance because you trust them and not because you know where their office is located in.

[MusaMohamed]

$12B gone in less than 60 days. The outflow till end of February is bigger, that report was published in January.

Binance was capable to handle those user withdrawals in the past two months and it is not a small capital flow out of Binance. They did not fall into insolvent crisis like FTX but Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts

Trust or don't trust Binance, the reminder is important as "not your keys, not your bitcoins[/url]. If people let Binance and CZ hold your keys, you don't have your bitcoins.

[Despairo]

According to them they have no head office.  They still keep it decentralized. They have established their boards in several countries. No one can directly say where their headquarters is as they have employees from different countries and they don't have a specific head office. So it's hard to say which country they pay tax to but for Binance.us they definitely pay tax to us government.

It's definitely impossible if a company doesn't have a head office, just take a look with offline businesses e.g. KFC, Subway, McDonald where all of them can be easily find where the head office. I think due to lack of strict regulations that makes Binance can be operated illegally using a virtual office. Since there's no head office and no transparent financial report, I would assume Binance didn't pay any tax or they're trying to reduce the tax as much as possible. CZ can just claim if their head office in a tax haven country.

Binance.us is really small compared to official Binance site.

[GreatArkansas]

Most of the companies are just like this, they are just buying some virtual office or address so they can be registered as a legit business. There are a lot of businesses just like this, they have an official business address but no physical office or headquarters.

$12B gone in less than 60 days. The outflow till end of February is bigger, that report was published in January.
(...)
Trust or don't trust Binance, the reminder is important as "not your keys, not your bitcoins[/url]. If people let Binance and CZ hold your keys, you don't have your bitcoins.

Exactly, even how huge or famous an exchange is, there are still a lot of possibilities, the best example of that is FTX Exchange.

And also there is really some FUD spreading, which some FUD targetting competitors or some are targeting entirely cryptocurrency which they will use top exchanges for that.

[Darker45]

I suppose not much has changed after all these years. I remember years ago CZ was interviewed and he also said something like they're everywhere. In other words, they don't have a base or a headquarter. I suppose many of their employees are scattered across the world working on a remote basis. But I guess they have registered offices in different countries. Official and legal communications could use their addresses. Not to mention that other Binance entities have their headquarters.

Like you rightly pointed out Binance is like a system with different parts in different countries working together to achieve the firm's goals and objectives. These subsidiaries are registered in their host nation where they operate according to the laws of the nation. Concerning the location of the headquarters it looks like the firm keeps moving it from one country to another based on how favorable the laws on cryptocurrencies are. It has been moved from China, Japan, and currently the Cayman Islands. But like Zhao rightly said Binance doesn't need a postal address because the most trusted coin doesn't have one. So you are using Binance because you trust them and not because you know where their office is located in.

No, CZ shouldn't compare Binance with Bitcoin. They're not only different, they could even be opposites. But this is familiar. I think CZ has also mentioned how Binance is decentralized like Bitcoin in explaining why it doesn't have a single base or a headquarter. I don't think he's correct.

How could he even compare a private company with an absolutely public currency? An completely independent currency is not answerable to anybody. It is different, however, to a centralized company. Having no registration and no address means zero accountability. You can easily trust the transparent and immutable codes of Bitcoin, but you cannot do the same with a clandestine company run by one man.

[rat03gopoh]

Binance has several stories of how they attempted to set up (physically) a head office which on average was short-lived due to new regulations that didn't always seem to stick around once the office was established, since the Cayman Islands (their first license), Malta, China, Japan, Seychelles^[1].

December 2021 The Central Bank of Bahrain granted an in-principle license^[2] where it was an opportunity to set up a new headquarters, though I never heard of any renewal. I think CZ is no longer interested in establishing a central office, as a matter of CZ's principle:

“Office and HQ are old concepts like SMS and MMS.”

1. https://decrypt.co/19191/binances-real-headquarters-are-in-the-cayman-islands
2. https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-gets-green-light-from-canada-and-bahrain

[Edwardard]

Firstly, since no one recommended yet, I'd suggest you to move this thread to exchanges board (since this is a cex related discussion and has nothing to do with bitcoin).
Secondly, binance and all those exchanges probably dont have any physical headquarters imo, otherwise ppl would trash their offices everytime whenever there is an unsual activity in the exchange lol. This is not a bank.

[Kryptowerk]

Binance has several stories of how they attempted to set up (physically) a head office which on average was short-lived due to new regulations that didn't always seem to stick around once the office was established, since the Cayman Islands (their first license), Malta, China, Japan, Seychelles^[1].

December 2021 The Central Bank of Bahrain granted an in-principle license^[2] where it was an opportunity to set up a new headquarters, though I never heard of any renewal. I think CZ is no longer interested in establishing a central office, as a matter of CZ's principle:

“Office and HQ are old concepts like SMS and MMS.”

1. https://decrypt.co/19191/binances-real-headquarters-are-in-the-cayman-islands
2. https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-gets-green-light-from-canada-and-bahrain

Haha, love the quote, what a rebel that CZ guy is. Or just naive? Hope this "strategy" works out, generally I like the idea of a decentralized company that is not bound to one nation, but my guess is nations don't like that.
True cypherpunk spirit but tbh I would be suprised if CZ didn't have to go into hiding or at least needs to avoid certain countries at some point in time.

[...]
No, CZ shouldn't compare Binance with Bitcoin. They're not only different, they could even be opposites. But this is familiar. I think CZ has also mentioned how Binance is decentralized like Bitcoin in explaining why it doesn't have a single base or a headquarter. I don't think he's correct.

How could he even compare a private company with an absolutely public currency? An completely independent currency is not answerable to anybody. It is different, however, to a centralized company. Having no registration and no address means zero accountability. You can easily trust the transparent and immutable codes of Bitcoin, but you cannot do the same with a clandestine company run by one man.

Agreed, a company run by one person on top - opposite of a decentralized thing such as Bitcoin.
Good PR, though.

[dkbit98]

How does a company like Binance pay taxes (if at all?) and under which law are they to respond to any disbutes?

We know for sure that Binance US is located in United States, they pay taxes and all other stuff in US, but this was created in 2019 and they exist much longer.

Coingecko website is showing that original Binance exchange is using Cayman Islands location, probably to pay less taxes and avoid regulations.
CoinMarketCap (that is owend by Binance) and they are not saying anything about current location, but we know that it was founded in China

It's much easier to find out where CZ is currently located, and if he is in China than Binance exchange is also in China  

[germsite]

$12B gone in less than 60 days. The outflow till end of February is bigger, that report was published in January.

Binance was capable to handle those user withdrawals in the past two months and it is not a small capital flow out of Binance. They did not fall into insolvent crisis like FTX but Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts

Trust or don't trust Binance, the reminder is important as "not your keys, not your bitcoins[/url]. If people let Binance and CZ hold your keys, you don't have your bitcoins.

I agree that centralized exchanges are risky as we have learnt many times in the past. But if I had to choose which exchange to trust, Binance would still be on the list of favored exchanges. CZ is present everywhere, he doesn't hide, he can visit any country as he is not legally prosecuted anywhere.

I also never had the feeling that he is the same type of person as the FTX guy. It can always be a facade of course, but he has met his obligations for his customers at any time as far as I know. That might not matter to everyone, but CZ is 46 years of age. You are more grown up at that age. That still doesn't mean automatically that you can handle billions responsibly, but Sam Bankman-Fried became a billionaire within a year or so in his mid twenties. I think that's a bit more complicated. There is no time for your personality to really adjust to the new circumstances. Zuckerberg was young when he turned a billionaire, but he was running facebook for over three years by then, had a network of investors who could influence him and there are more limitations to using your own assets / shares for a gamble.

[Lucius]

Regardless of what CZ says, it seems to me that the headquarters of the company is in the headquarters of CP China in the sense that the boss will run there if things go downhill. If you look at it from that perspective, then CZ runs a perfect global business, and its HQ can be wherever it comes to mind.

As for taxes, they only pay what they have to in order to appear to be operating legitimately, and the laws have so many loopholes that an army of cunning lawyers can very skillfully exploit them.

[Emitdama]

CZ actually gave the correct answer though, that is the problem . They are not located in a headquarters, working from there to make everything work, and have nothing else. Like just for example they have offices in the USA and UK too, why? Because they have to, based on the rules and regulations imposed on them, sure it is not the main office, but that is an office if you really want to visit.

And they do have Malta and even Cyprus locations too, for tax reasons to make it look more legit. But aside from that, it is an online company and mainly managed online and have offices all around the world where you can go if you want to work in the office, otherwise it's spread out, there is no single office that everyone gets together, it is basically global.

[bbc.reporter]

I suppose not much has changed after all these years. I remember years ago CZ was interviewed and he also said something like they're everywhere. In other words, they don't have a base or a headquarter. I suppose much of their employees are scattered across the world working on a remote basis. But I guess they have registered offices in different countries. Official and legal communications could use their addresses. Not to mention that other Binance entities have their own headquarters.

I also remember the interview. If I remember it correctly, he also implied that Binance smartchain will very much be a big part of Binance's progression to become a more decentralized exchange where their jurisdiction might be will not be very important.

Regardless of what CZ says, it seems to me that the headquarters of the company is in the headquarters of CP China in the sense that the boss will run there if things go downhill. If you look at it from that perspective, then CZ runs a perfect global business, and its HQ can be wherever it comes to mind.

I very much agree. Similar to Justin Sun, the future king of the cryptospace, CZ also has very poweful backers from China.

[tabas]

I have checked one position opening on their website and it's a remote setup or someone who should be willing to work in Kuala Lumpur or somewhere in Malaysia.
So, just as said, they can be found everywhere if you want to file some case that has been bothering you against them. But if the reason is just for your curiosity, just think that wherever they're found, they've got offices there. But the one that I remember was when they've been on the headlines when they've said that their office will be on Malta because the country is a tax haven for them.