In the FTX Collapse, Binance sees an opportunity to become the new face of cryptocurrency

Mr. Zhao founded Binance after a short career in finance, including a stint at Bloomberg, where he built trading software. He set up the exchange while he was living in Shanghai.

But soon after, the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance from operating in the country, and many of the company’s employees fled. Mr Zhao maintains an active presence on Twitter but is not always easy to track down, having traveled between Japan, Singapore, Lithuania, Malta and Dubai.

Jessica Jung, a spokeswoman for the company, said that Binance’s lack of a fixed headquarters is in line with the trend of remote working. In an emailed statement, Ms. Jung said the exchange has established a local presence in nearly a dozen jurisdictions, including in Kazakhstan and France.

Ms. Jung said that Binance has also announced that it is undergoing a corporate restructuring, “the aim of which is to provide regulators with more clarity about our organization.” But promises made a year ago to name a headquarters and set up a board of directors to diversify oversight of the company have not been kept.

Binance is a giant compared to its peers. Before the collapse of FTX, the trading volume of cryptocurrencies on Binance alone was greater than the combined totals of its seven closest competitors, according to industry data tracker.

in conversation group That included Mr. Bankman Fried On November 10, the day before FTX filed for bankruptcy, Mr. Zhao portrayed himself as the cryptocurrency’s biggest statesman. The FTX founder has been accused of conducting deals that would undermine the broader crypto market, according to screenshots obtained by The Times. “Now stop,” he said, “don’t do any more harm.” “The more damage you do now, the longer the jail time.”

The group chat included several other high-profile crypto executives, and Mr. Zhao seemed keen to come up with a joint strategy. “I think we should coordinate a little bit to see how we can work together better to help stabilize and restore confidence in the market,” he said.