Binance Hires UK Director To Appease Regulators
- The Regional Manager of Europe and the UK at leading crypto exchange Binance, Ilir Laro, confirmed that it has hired a new director in an effort to remain above board in the United Kingdom.
- Its recent struggle with rival exchange FTX has brought Binance into the regulatory spotlight.
- Patel has previously worked with cryptocurrency brokerage platform Rain and Hamilton Capital Holding, a UK-based pioneering consultancy firm.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has taken a major step towards inviting regulators to implement rules in the Wild Wild West that is crypto. The Changpeng Zhao-led firm has announced that it has hired a new director in an effort to remain above board in the United Kingdom, one of the booming locations in terms of crypto adoption and regulation.
In a LinkedIn post, Binance Regional Manager of Europe and the UK Ilir Laro confirmed that his exchange has hired Nish Patel to be a director for the region and will help the firm get closer to regulators and soften the blow created by the recent surge in illicit activities and scams in the crypto space along with cases of money laundering.
“Our main focus will be to register and comply with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to operate a regulated crypto-asset business in the UK,” Laro wrote.
Regulation of crypto assets has become the cause for concern for many blockchain-focused firms in the US as well as around the globe. A major bill surrounding this industry has yet to be introduced by any financial regulator around the world because of the significant expansion of this space in such less time and a high number of use cases in technological and financial sectors.
Interestingly, the new UK director for Binance, Patel, is not new to working with crypto assets and as per his LinkedIn, he has previously worked with cryptocurrency brokerage platform Rain which allows its users to buy, sell, swap and store Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 70+ other cryptocurrencies online. On the other hand, he has also worked with Hamilton Capital Holding, a UK-based pioneering consultancy firm with a primary focus on supporting financial and technology-focused organisations.
This new hire from Binance comes at a time when executives are stepping down from crypto firms and employees are being let go. Recently, FTX US president Brett Harrison resigned as the exchange decided to shift its headquarters to a new region. Several other executives also stepped down from their positions including BitMEX CEO Alexander Höptner and co-founder of Polkadot and CEO of Parity Technologies, Gavin Woods.
Interestingly, Binance has become the center of attraction for regulations following the FTX collapse which shook the entire crypto industry as the once $32 billion valued firm went under in just a few hours. The Zhao-led exchange stated that it won’t acquire FTX following a closer look at its balance sheet.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
