TOKYO, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Binance co-CEO Richard Teng on Thursday said Greece's labour force and security profile gave it the edge over larger financial centres when the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange was selecting a regulatory home in Europe.
Binance, which holds about $44 billion worth of bitcoin in its customer wallets, last month applied in Greece to operate in the European Union under the trading bloc's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) scheme. Crypto companies must obtain a MiCA license by July 2026 to continue operating in the market.
Greece has yet to issue a MiCA license, compared with 45 in Germany and 22 in the Netherlands, based on regulator data, making it an unconventional choice for the crypto giant, which has some 300 million users and has a global regulatory home in Abu Dhabi.
"The license is pretty standard throughout Europe, so we have to think through many other factors, whether it's social, whether it's talent pool, safety and security issues," Teng said on the sidelines of the GFTN Forum in Tokyo. "Greece is where we think will be a good base for us to expand in Europe."
Teng, a former regulator in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, said he would leave it to the EU to determine if Binance gets its license by the July deadline. Since taking the helm in November 2023, he has sought to make Binance the "most regulated" crypto exchange in the world.
His predecessor and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, pleaded guilty to violating U.S. money-laundering laws, resulting in a nearly four-month prison sentence and a $4.3 billion fine. Teng said Zhao, who was pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump last year, remained active as a shareholder and the founder would have to answer questions about a potential return to the company.
Questions about the company resurfaced recently when The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported that Binance investigators found evidence of $1.7 billion in crypto transfers with Iranian and Russian actors, prompting an inquiry from Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat.
Teng said the reports were misleading and the Binance investigators cited in the reports were terminated for breaching data-handling policies, not for uncovering suspect transfers.
"We do not serve residents of sanctioned countries," he said, acknowledging that it was impossible to totally eliminate suspicious transactions made through the blockchain.
In December, Binance named Yi He, a co-founder and long-time romantic partner of Zhao, as the exchange's co-CEO. Teng said the move was a "natural progression" as the company grows and that he shares "complementary strengths" with Yi He.
Crypto assets have been on a wild ride over the past year, with bitcoin down about 50% from its record high of just over $126,000 in October. Binance spent $1 billion from an emergency fund to buy bitcoin to help prop up its value.
Teng said that retail sentiment about crypto had weakened but adoption and flows among financial professionals remainedstable.
"The smart money, the institutional money, the long-term money still continues to invest," he added.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
