The controversy is growing on the side of Binance, accused of practicing aggressive marketing, disguised as a training course. An investigation of Financial Times reveals that the exchange has partnered with Pôle Emploi by offering training for job seekers from working-class neighborhoods. A questionable practice which would aim to recruit new customers.
A blockchain and web 3 training program
While the historic CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, recently resigned, Binance’s foray into the training courses of French job seekers raises questions. At first glance, the intention is laudable: to train young people in web 3 professions and the use of blockchain. Skills that are part of the “start-up nation” policy wanted by Emmanuel Macron. The announced objective? Train 10,000 students in these new professions through Binance Scholar Program. For this, Pôle Emploi went through the company Simplon, a service provider specializing in professional training which chose to call on Binance Charitythe educational program of the crypto exchange.
Disguised marketing?
The problem is that this offer does not seem to go beyond simple skills development. The important range of promotional gifts during training makes the process ambiguous. On arrival, participants received a bag containing hats, leaflets, pens and notebooks bearing the brand’s image.
In addition, Binance, by responding to the Simplon request, would have specifically targeted a disadvantaged audience, and therefore, more vulnerable to the speculative aspect of cryptocurrencies. THE Financial Times went to meet the young people registered for the training: many come from Bondy, Aulnay-sous-Bois or even Montreuil. They volunteered to join the program, hoping to find a job as a developer or engineer. But it is also because Binance would have dangled them with promises of substantial gains as a junior blockchain developer. Until “$100,000 per year » according to one participant.
A Binance NFT as a diploma
To put the skills learned during training into practice, what could be better than a diploma directly on the blockchain, in the form of an NFT? Here again, the proposition could seem attractive… if it did not require obtaining the Non-Fungible Token via a Binance wallet. By asking to create an account on their platform, Binance would have used abusive commercial practices. Especially since the elements suggest that the commercial nature of the operation was clearly established internally, at Binance.
Questioned, Thierry Philipponnat, who works in particular for the AMF, declared to the Financial Times: “I imagine that the practices [décrites] could give rise to a nice debate between lawyers on the question of whether or not they should be considered marketing. »
Regulation of ancillary activities are crypto exchanges to be expected? The training offered by major players in the industry is currently quite limited. But the rapid expansion of this type of partnership could lead the regulator to take a serious look at the issue.
Conclusion
Since 2021, Binance has been growing rapidly in France, with the blessing of the government and the state. But the company’s intentions seem more distant than ever from the initial philosophy of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The centralized exchange is once again the subject of controversy amid questionable marketing practices, using it as a training workshop to promote the brand.
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