Binance Secures Crypto Services License in Kazakhstan

Binance has been in the news recently for furthering their spree of acquiring licenses to operate in more jurisdictions, as the CEO Changpeng Zhao presses on with his mission to bring hundreds of millions of people into crypto within the next few years. 

Current forecasts estimate that by 2024 or 2025, there will be over one billion people worldwide who own at least some cryptocurrency, and as the leading cryptocurrency exchange and digital asset services provider, Binance is one of the companies that is best positioned to capitalise on this explosive growth. 

Binance receives license to operate in Kazakhstan 

According to a recent press release, Binance has obtained a license to provide custody services for digital assets in Kazakhstan. 

Binance received the license from the AIFC Federal Services Regulatory Committee and will henceforth be able to offer the aforementioned services from the Astana International Financial Centre. 

Binance is the most-licensed exchange 

As well as having the largest trading volumes and being the most popular exchange in terms of the number of users, Binance is now the cryptocurrency exchange with the most licenses in the most jurisdictions worldwide. 

Hacker steals 2m BNB and BSC is paused for eight hours 

Holders of SOL will no doubt be well-accustomed to the idea that centralised blockchains are often paused or stop working for some time (the chain has already stopped working eight times over the course of 2022). 

However, until now, Binance Smart Chain had managed to operate almost controversy-free, with no major problems exposed at the protocol level. 

Last night, a hacker managed to exploit a flaw in the Binance Token Hub, which likes the Binance Chain with the Binance Smart Chain. This allowed them to steal 2m BNB, which they promptly tried to convert into other assets and move to more censorship-resistant chains. 

The team at Binance tried to intervene and salvage as much as they could from the situation, and promptly decided to pause the chain for eight hours. 

When all was said and done, Tether had blacklisted the hacker and his associated wallets, and the hacker appears to have only made off with $100m of the $560m that was originally stolen – still a large sum, but not nearly as bad as it could have been had the team at Binance not been so diligent.