Crypto exchange WazirX moves funds from Binance as it terminates access to wallet and tech services

Indian crypto exchange WazirX is moving crypto assets held on Binance after the latter published a blog post stating it is terminating WazirX's access to its wallet and related technology services.

In the post, Binance, which has been in public debate over its contentious ownership of WazirX, stated it has "no control over WazirX user funds or any aspect of the WazirX exchange’s operations."

"Rather, as we do for many individuals and organisations, we provided wallet and related technology services to the exchange’s operator, Zanmai Labs (“Zanmai”),–a service we are terminating," it added.

In response, WazirX tweeted it is transferring assets held on Binance to other multi-signature crypto wallets. "Users can continue to trade, deposit & withdraw funds as usual," it added.

This comes a few weeks after WazirX revealed it holds 90% of its user funds on exchanges, with some reports stating these were held on Binance, until now.

As per its Proof of Reserves (PoR) report, WazirX holds $285.08 million worth of crypto assets, out of which $258.68 million was held on exchanges (reportedly Binance), while the rest is held on decentralised protocols.

According to the information shared by the company, the top five crypto assets held by WazirX are Shiba Inu (SHIB) at 19.13%, Ethereum (ETH) at 9.38%, Bitcoin (BTC) at 8.29%, Dogecoin (DOGE) at 8.19% and Polygon (MATIC) at 4.97%.

The exchange also claimed earlier its reserves-to-liabilities ratio remains more than 1:1, implying sufficient liquidity for users in the event of a withdrawal.

The debate over WazirX's ownership emerged in August 2022 when Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claimed on a Twitter thread that the company did not own any equity in WazirX. In response, Nischal Shetty, Founder and CEO of WazirX, said Binance did acquire WazirX, and Zanmai Labs had a licence from Binance to operate INR-crypto pairs on WazirX.

Following this public controversy around the ownership of WazirX in August 2022, Binance removed the off-chain fund transfer channel between WazirX and Binance.