Confidence in the crypto industry is shaken following the high profile meltdown of the world's third largest crypto exchange by volume, FTX, last week, but the founder of the largest, Changpeng Zhao, said he is working to move forward. 

"Confidence in the industry is shaken. Going forward regulators are going to scrutinise this industry a lot more," the Binance founder, known as CZ, told Abu Dhabi Finance week at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

The point of crypto is to be to a trustless industry, removing the need to be dependent on trust, he said, but there is a need for transparency in the industry.

Zhao said he is working closely with regulators and auditors to create greater transparency going forward, adding, that Binance has 15 crypto licences all over the world, making it the most licensed on the planet.

The latest is a custody licence and fund management licence, which he said his firm had received yesterday in Abu Dhabi.

He said that the crypto world needs a global industry association, including exchanges and blockchain players. "We do not have one common voice," Zhao said.

Having tweeted on the day of the FTX collapse about the need for crypto firms to have significant reserves, Zhao told the audience that Binance has significant reserves. He did not give further details about Binance’s reserves.

"I spend a lot of time talking to heads of state and legislators trying to grow the industry. I do not spend that much time on the day to day operations of the business. 

"Going forward, I'm going to spend more and more time on the industry and less and less on Binance, he said.

“I am not the saviour of crypto,” Zhao later told journalists at a media briefing. “Crypto will be fine.”

Speaking about the day Binance sold their FTT tokens in the run up to the FTX collapse, he said: “We view ourselves as participants in the industry. I made a tweet saying we are selling our FTT tokens just to be transparent. We do try to do things to protect the industry, so we warned the industry.”

Zhao said he had tweeted that he was selling the tokens, which were from a transaction 18 months previously.

“I did not expect Sam (Bankman-Fried) to call me the next day to say he was insolvent,” he said.

(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)

( imogen.lillywhite@lseg.com)