New Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks Says the firm is not an ‘Alter-Ego’ of Parent Company

Brian Brooks, the newly elected CEO of Binance.US, the independent subsidiary of the world’s largest crypto exchange has made it clear that the US subsidiary of the exchange is no ‘alter-ego’ of the parent company and acts independently. Brooks was recently appointed as the head of the exchange in a bid to improve the scope of the exchange in the US, a market Binance is yet to conquer. The US-based subsidiary was first launched in 2019 after the US authorities prohibited exchanges outside the country to offer their services to US citizens but despite an independent subsidiary it has not managed to compete against the likes of Coinbase and Gemini.

Brooks in a recent interview said that he will be meeting with top regulators and try to explain to them how they are focusing on being one of the most compliance-focused firms. He said

“The challenge ahead of me is to get in front of the regulators and explain to them that we have an approach. It’s a heavily compliance-focused approach. We are not an alter-ego of Binance,”

Binance has been on a hiring spree over the past month and ob-boarded several former regulators including two FATF executives and former US advisor to China as their government and policy advisors.

Binance is Trying to Conquer US Markets

Binance.US has the trading license to operate in 43 states but not all facilities especially leverage trading are allowed in the US markets, something the parent company is quite popular for. The US was one of the toughest markets for crypto operations and despite the changing stance of the government towards digital assets, the heavy regulatory scrutiny makes the likes of Binance suffer against the competition.

Binance was also facing a CFTC probe recently for offering leverage and futures trading options in the US. The regulatory scrutiny might increase further in the States and this one of the key reasons behind the change in the top administration of the US subsidiary. Even though Brooks claims the exchange won’t act as an alter ego, that could be questionable given a majority of the stakes in the firm are held by CEO Changpeng Zhao himself.