Le Financial Times a published a survey explaining « how poor French people are pushed towards crypto » via training given to the unemployed by the company. This takes the opportunity to have them open an account on its platform.
The British economic media Financial Times (FT) took an interest in the practices of the cryptocurrency exchange and digital currency portfolio management company in France.
The newspaper explains that Binance took advantage of the “courtship” led by the French executive to the cryptocurrency giant since 2021 to introduce itself into training programs for young people and unemployed people to promote its services.
Honored to have dinner with (a few hundred people and) President Macron. @ Choose France 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/qQXWlTKBe5
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) July 11, 2022
Recalling the company’s recent legal setbacks from both a financial and legal point of view, the FT is surprised: “ One might have expected that recent events would shake this budding relationship. But the French government seems to have remained under the spell of Binance ».
Indeed, the Financial Times explains that “ Behind a seemingly benevolent charity program, Binance has used aggressive tactics to get people to use its services in some of France’s most deprived areas ».
Training in collaboration with the startup Simplon
Initially, Binance set up training with training startup Simplon aimed at young people and the unemployed to train them in blockchain technology. This type of training was boosted by the executive.
For example, in 2018, the Minister of Labor at the time, Muriel Pénicaud, had announcement a goal of 10,000 training courses in digital professions aimed at “ train a million young people and a million low-skilled job seekers and accelerate the transformation of vocational training ».
According to Akila Quinio, the Financial Times journalist who attended an awareness course in Aulnay-Sous-Bois, it lasted half a day and consisted of the presentation of a Powerpoint on blockchain and a “ short practical exercise » on Solidity software.
Marketing during training
But above all, the journalist evokes another aspect of these training courses: all the company’s marketing paraphernalia was there: bags, caps, brochures, pens and notebooks. The company therefore took advantage of this training to promote its cryptocurrency portfolio management solutions.
The journalist also met two young participants in this training coming from Bondy and Montreuil. None of them voluntarily signed up for the training. They would have been via a program of the same type as those mentioned above.
According to one of them, the company explained to them that “ a junior blockchain developer could earn 100,000 euros per year “. He adds: “ obviously we all had stars in our eyes – it’s attractive ».
The other participant is at least happy to have received a t-shirt: “ the Binance T-shirt I received is of exceptional quality, that’s always a good thing. […] Maybe CZ had a childhood like ours in the suburbs and that’s why he wants to share it with those less fortunate » he replied to the journalist.
But according to the first, during the training, they were asked to create a Binance account to receive an NFT diploma, after this half-day of training. Although he did not ultimately finalize the process, he explained to the Financial Times that he had “ started creating the Binance account because they asked me to and now they are harassing me with emails “. The newspaper specifies that more than a year later, he still receives emails, some of which push him to exchange crypto coupons on the platform.
Simplon embarrassed
Questioned by the newspaper, the founder of Simplon, Frédéric Bardeau, explains that he had confidence in Binance because it was approved by the French government and by the French market regulation authority.
He is pointing out that ” our mission was to make people understand and love blockchain and their uses beyond cryptocurrency, not to mix genres and do hard selling “. The next day, specifies the Financial Times, the training had disappeared from the Simplon site.
Questioned by the newspaper, the Financial Markets Authority refused to comment directly on the matter, but explains that “ one thing is certain: the [régime d’enregistrement des crypto-monnaies de l’AMF] does not allow direct solicitation of customers ».
In November 2023, Changpeng Zhao (CE, the founder of Binance) for his part pleaded guilty and resigned after an agreement with the American authorities, Binance also having to pay a fine of around $4.3 billion for money laundering. money.
