Binance CEO has traveled to US without publicizing it, spokesperson says

Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has traveled to the U.S. but hasn't publicized it because the firm cannot market to U.S. customers, the company said.

Binance's Chief Strategy Officer and company spokesperson Patrick Hillmann said that Zhao has been in the U.S., although he didn't specify the timing of any trips. He was responding to a question to Zhao from a user on Twitter who asked "Do you travel to the U.S.?"

Zhao's whereabouts, and whether or not he's traveled to the U.S., are frequently scrutinized, especially amid rumors that he could face legal troubles in the country. Reuters reported earlier this week that the U.S. Department of Justice is continuing to weigh charging Binance for possible money laundering and criminal sanctions violations

Responding to another question, Hillmann said that Binance official Guangying Chen leads two European subsidiaries because she is a founder and still leads the administrative team. Binance's main corporate entity is registered in the Cayman Islands, although that "will be updated shortly," he added. 

"CZ wasn't on that text chain prior to the Tether issue," Hillmann wrote, referring to a report in the Wall Street Journal about an alleged group on messaging app Signal. 

A day after resuming withdrawal requests for the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin after pausing them for several hours, Zhao characterized recent volatility as "just normal market behavior." 

"We hold user assets one-to-one," he said Wednesday in a an ask-me-anything conversation on Twitter Spaces. "There's no amount of withdrawals that can put us under pressure."

(Updates with additional context in second paragraph.)