(Bloomberg) -- Binance sent news articles to a UK Parliamentary committee probing the collapse of FTX.com and its planned sale of FTX’s native FTT token, a move that some lawmakers called disappointing and unacceptable.
When asked in a Bloomberg Radio interview if she was satisfied with the submission, Alison Thewliss, a member of the Treasury Committee, said “no.”
“It doesn’t really give us the real background detail,” she said. “I’m sure the committee will be asking more questions to get to the details of what happened here, because there are wider implications for this collapse and for the crypto sector as a whole.”
The committee had expected to receive internal records this week about the potential market consequences of Binance’s announced divestment of FTT. Daniel Trinder, Binance’s vice president of government affairs in Europe, appeared at a hearing as part of the group’s cryptoasset inquiry.
A document provided by Binance, made public by the committee on Wednesday, detailed a list of news articles displaying a timeline of FTX’s collapse.
Thewliss said that Binance’s lack of transparency would influence the committee’s inquiry and the recommendations it will make to government on regulating the crypto industry.
Limited Powers
While members of the Treasury Committee were “disappointed” and would have liked to have seen more internal discussions, Chair Harriett Baldwin said in an interview that “we don’t have much ability to push for more than we’ve received” as FTX’s activity was largely beyond the UK.
Read More: How Binance, FTX Deal Rocked the Crypto World and Then Collapsed
“They may hide behind some degree of commercial confidentiality on that, but really, given the scale of things, that’s not really acceptable,” Thewliss said.
Binance was set to acquire troubled rival FTX.com earlier this month, but walked away from the deal citing problems with FTX’s finances as well as potential regulatory investigations. Its decision deepened a crypto rout, with Bitcoin tumbling to the lowest level in two years.
A spokesperson for Binance said it was unable to provide any documents relating to FTX beyond factual information, because the exchange is “cooperating and sharing information on a strictly confidential basis” with authorities investigating FTX’s collapse in multiple jurisdictions.
Wider Concern
Binance has sought to portray itself as a unifying force for the crypto industry since FTX’s decline began, both as an olive branch to the failing platform and as a source of financial rescue for impacted projects.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is set to gain extended powers to regulate the crypto industry in upcoming legislation, which will bring cryptoassets including stablecoins and their providers under existing payments regimes.
“There’s a wider concern that the committee has, that other people have, about the regulation of cryptocurrencies, about the protection that consumers have and that businesses have in this country as well,” Thewliss said.
--With assistance from Aisha S Gani.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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