The crypto industry took a setback recently with reports from China about raids in the offices of Binance as well as Bithumb’s Shanghai offices by local authorities.
However, both exchanges came out to deny any such raids, claiming these as attempts to tarnish their reputation in the country.
No office in Shanghai
A spokesperson from Binance told Cointelegraph that no such offices in Shanghai even exist.
“The Binance team is a global movement consisting of people working in a decentralized manner wherever they are in the world. Binance has no fixed offices in Shanghai or China, so it makes no sense that police raided on any offices and shut them down,” the spokesperson said.
No standing by that there was "a police raid"? WTF man! https://t.co/Qi1trHuIpI
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) November 22, 2019
On Thursday, multiple media houses reported that Chinese authorities raided Binance’s Shanghai office, followed by its shut down. According to the spokesperson, there is a spike in negative reports by Chinese media against the exchange.
“We also encourage our friends from the media to verify if their 'sources' are telling the truth or presenting their own agenda,” he added.
Meanwhile, another Chinese media house also reported that South Korean giant Bithumb sent its Shanghai-based employees on vacation amid an inspection notice from local police.
Similar to Binance, Bithumb also denied any occurrence of such raids.
“We have one of our Blockchain technology research and development teams based in Shanghai and the projects are continuing steadily without pause,” a Bithumb spokesperson told The Block.
However, the negative reports already made a major impact on the market as the trading price of Bitcoin slid below $7,600 and is still projecting bear signals.
