The Block’s Binance Shanghai Office Debacle Escalates with CZ Promising Lawsuits

There are very few things that can light a fire under the entire crypto community’s seat. A fake Satoshi Nakamoto and a Chinese President embracing blockchain are two good examples. Binance has recently caused the same effect due to The Block releasing an article that alleges that Binance’s Shanghai offices were subject to a police raid. Due to the debacle following that article, Binance is promising to sue The Block for its

It’s a funny thing, raiding an office that’s not supposed to exist. The article blew up on twitter due to the sheer size of Binance. The humor is lost when the Bitcoin price drops like a stone, and Binance’s namesake token follows as well.

Claims of FUD campaigns

The entire debacle started with The Block’s “Daily” subscription articles that were hidden behind a paywall. This article alleged that Binance’s Shanghai offices abruptly closed its doors in “recent weeks,” and the article gave a heavy suggestion that it was due to a police raid happening. The article quickly moved to the free public section, the reasons why aren’t clear, and thus the crypto community went into full throttle.

The backlash was quite immediate. Wi Zhou, Binance’s CFO, simply had to pile on the community’s sentiments that the article was false. His exact words, done via tweet, was “No raid cuz no office!”

Please squash this rumor. No raid cuz no office! @lawmaster https://t.co/a0jsknrVxK

— Wei (@weizhouBinance) November 21, 2019

With such a heavy accusation, Changpeng Zhao quickly joined up. He reiterated the counter-narrative pushed by Binance that the article was pure FUD, or fear, uncertainty, doubt. It’s common practice in the corporate world to “subtly” defame your opponents, something that’s even more widespread in the Chinese crypto scene. Media is bribed to send out intentionally dubious articles to smear the name of some company’s rival.

pic.twitter.com/oU6Pcry63k

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) November 22, 2019

A Sudden Backpedal

As the backlash started to gain momentum, the Block was forced to address a community-wide denial of the article’s claims. The Block’s Director of News, Frank Chaparro, has released a clarification article about the matter. He doubles down on his claims, citing Caijing.com as the source of his information that Binance had two offices in Shanghai. Along with that, the mysterious “Binance Source” that the Block makes frequent use of is cited as another justification. The Binance Source apparently corroborated the Caijing article’s information.

The Block at least admitted that the “police raid” insinuation was a tad far. They explained that another anonymous binance employee stated that “officials” visited one of the offices, then the offices were subsequently shut down. It sounds as much like a police raid as a drizzle could be described as a typhoon.

Promises of Lawsuit

Binance is rather understandably angry at this situation. Changpeng Zhao has made it clear that he is planning on suing the company for the troubles. Although, it sounds more like Binance will sue them instead of the CEO directly. The lawsuit will probably be along the lines of defamation.