Prime Minister Robert Abela said that he has never met Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who had pled guilty to violating anti-money laundering rules in the United States.

Abela said this in response to a parliamentary question made by PN MP Jerome Caruana Cilia, who asked the PM for details about meetings between representatives of the company and government representatives. Caruana Cilia asked for the dates of these meetings, as well as who attended, and whether minutes were taken during the meetings. Abela simply replied that he has never met Mr Changpeng Zhao, and did not say if or when meetings with government representatives took place.

In 2018, Binance announced it would be heading to Malta in March of that year, which was welcomed by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in light of Malta's blockchain and cryptocurrency strategy.

In 2021, the MFSA had warned that Binance was not licensed nor authorised by the MFSA to conduct any VFA related activities in or from Malta, and had issued a similar warning in 2020.