Binance announced plans to open a new office in Malta. CEO of the company, Zhao Changpeng, confirmed the office’s location by stating:
“We are very confident we can announce a banking partnership there soon. Malta is very progressive when it comes to crypto and fintech.”
Joseph Muscat, Malta’s prime minister, also tweeted a greeting to Binance:
“Welcome to #Malta @binance. We aim to be the global trailblazers in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses.”
According to Bloomberg, the company had an office in Japan and was in the process of applying for a license to operate in the country, but decided to remove its staff after regulators in Asia began to crackdown on cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Zhao also reported he was in continuing discussions with authorities in Hong Kong, but that the outcome of those talks was uncertain. The opening date of Binance’s Malta office has yet to be confirmed.
Binance’s expansion opportunity comes just weeks after the company announced there was an attempt to hack on its platform. As previously reported, Binance outlined that hackers accumulated account info over an extended period of time – dating back to early January. The multi-tiered assault saw the thieves create a sophisticated phishing attempt by creating a domain that replicated Binance. It was reported:
“Within the aforementioned 2 minute period, the hackers used the API keys, placed a large number of market buys on the VIA/BTC market, pushing the price high, while 31 pre-deposited accounts were there selling VIA at the top. This was an attempt to move the BTC from the phished accounts to the 31 accounts. Withdrawal requests were then attempted from these accounts immediately afterwards. However, as withdrawals were already automatically disabled by our risk management system, none of the withdrawals successfully went out. Additionally, the VIA coins deposited by the hackers were also frozen. Not only did the hacker not steal any coins out, their own coins have also been withheld.”
Binance then offered a $250,000 reward for any leads on the hacking.