Cryptocurrency giant Binance is changing tack as it eyes the underdeveloped industry in Southeast Asia, reversing an “enter first, comply later” approach that has triggered warnings by financial authorities in the U.K., Japan and Singapore.
Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange by trading volume, signed on Thursday an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia to develop a legal framework for regulating and developing the local digital asset industry. Rules on cryptocurrency, both as a method of exchange and as an asset class, remain patchy in Southeast Asia.
The memorandum with Cambodia followed French regulators clearing a Binance subsidiary to provide digital asset services in May. France’s approval could help Binance clear the air with other European jurisdictions, after it was banned from regulated financial activities in the U.K. and received a warning from Japan to stop operating in the country without a license.
