A Binance buyer in Russia has denied involvement in the cryptocurrency exchange

Amid growing suspicions about CommEx – the mysterious buyer of Binance’s Russian subsidiary – the newly formed company once again denied any further Binance involvement.

Yesterday September 29th published CommEx therefore issued an open letter to the cryptocurrency community in which it reiterated that the company is not owned by Binance, which completed its withdrawal from Russia by selling its CommEx subsidiary.

“Although we do not disclose our ownership, we want to make it clear that we are not owned by Binance,” CommEx emphasized on its website. A CommEx spokesperson also declined to comment to Cointelegraph about why the company does not want to disclose information about its owners.

“We are a dynamic and proactive startup team made up of dozens of passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds,” CommEx said in the statement. Some of the core members are actually former Binance employees.

CommEx’s statement goes on to say that the company has been developing its platform for six months and has onboarded some former Binance employees during this time. “This allowed us to learn from Binance’s experience and establish indirect connections with it,” CommEx admitted.

This announcement confirms that former team members from Binance’s Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) division are now part of CommEx, even though the cryptocurrency exchange has no ownership stake in the new platform.

Former employees of Binance GUS (CIS) will soon join the new company or have already done so, as Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also confirmed on September 28 on X (formerly Twitter). “We think this is a good thing,” he added.

Some answers about Binance/CommEx.

There will be cryptocurrency transfers between Binance and CommEx as users migrate their funds. There are also older transactions during the testing phase of integrations. This is expected.

A few former Binance CIS team members may be joining their team,…

— Czechoslovakia Binance (@cz_binance) September 28, 2023

In addition to hiring some former Binance employees, CommEx has also adopted things like the design, APIs, and even Binance’s terms of service. “We explicitly asked to make sure the transition was as smooth as possible for users,” CZ explained of the similarities.

The Binance CEO also confirmed that CommEx does not provide services to users from the US and Europe. Zhao noted that European and American citizens are deliberately blocked when they try to access CommEx. “This is a condition we requested in the agreement,” Czechoslovakia said.

According to CommEx’s representatives Official telegram group The company allows CommEx users to trade up to 2 bitcoins (BTC), or approximately $54,000, without KYC verification.

CommEx’s unwillingness to disclose information about its owners, coupled with the fact that it employs former Binance employees and the similar design of its website and APIs, have fueled rumors that Binance is still the company’s secret owner.

Adam Cochran, partner at venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, Believes Thus, CommEx is “just another Binance shell company.”

On the other hand, some cryptocurrency observers say such a move would undermine Binance’s decision to leave Russia. “Clearly, US authorities could quickly determine whether the new owners are merely a front for Binance. This would make the situation look worse than if Binance had simply kept the business,” David Lesperance, founder of Lesperance & Associates, told Cointelegraph.