Binance, Bithumb Deny China Police Raid And Office Shut Down

Binance has denied reports that the Chinese authorities raided the cryptocurrency exchange's Shanghai office.

On Thursday, sources have informed The Block of a police raid that has led to the shutdown of Binance's office in Shanghai. The following day (Nov. 22), Bithumb, another crypto exchange from South Korea with an office in Shanghai, was also rumored to have been raided and shut down by authorities in China.

Both companies have denied the reports.

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world since 2018, claims that they don't have offices in the world's second-largest economy and that most of their staff work for them remotely.

"The Binance team is a global movement consisting of people working in a decentralized manner wherever they are in the world. Binance has no fixed offices in Shanghai or China, so it makes no sense that police raided on any offices and shut them down," according to the exchange.

However, The Block refutes Binance's claim of having no premises in Shanghai since they have seen photos of the exchange in their conversations with Binance representatives.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ in the crypto world, defended his company against The Block by tweeting, "No police, no raid, no office. Hope you didn't pay to read that FUD block."

CZ followed up with another tweet, "You can argue about the semantics of an office, who leased it, for how long, if it is empty, etc. But you can't argue about the semantics of a 'police raid' that did NOT happen. Without the fake 'police raid', there is no article. Pure FUD!"

CZ also pinned the blame on other exchanges -- Huobi, Ok, Gate, Kucoin -- in spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about Binance.

"Interestingly, I know for a fact two of these four exchanges that actually have offices in China is paying news outlets and KOLs to spread FUD about Binance. And not thinking through if China is to shut down any offices, it would be themselves."

Notice to the public
Cointelegraph reported that China had issued a notice to report activities that involve trading virtual assets.

"Virtual currency transactions in the territory; the other is to issue 'xx coins' and 'xx' in the form of 'blockchain application scenarios.' Currency, fundraising or bitcoin, virtual currency such as Ethereum; third, providing services such as publicity, diversion, agency trading, etc. for registered ICO projects, virtual currency trading platforms, etc."

Binance, however, told Cointelegraph that they did not receive the notice.

Effect on Bitcoin
Bitcoin went spiraling downward, following the news of the Shanghai office raid and shutdown. The leading crypto crossed below the $8,000 level for the first time from almost a month ago and has reached a low of $7,549.42, according to Coindesk.