Binance has withdrawn an application for a license to conduct business in Abu Dhabi, the most recent sign that the sizable cryptocurrency exchange is reevaluating its global structure in response to escalating regulatory demands.

A spokeswoman for Binance said in a statement on Thursday that the Binance entity known as BV Investment Management had withdrawn the application it had submitted to Abu Dhabi’s financial authority.

According to the regulatory body’s website, the request, submitted a year ago but withdrawn on November 7th, would have permitted the company to operate a collective investment fund.

“After conducting an analysis of our requirements for global licencing, we came to the conclusion that this application was not required,” stated a representative for Binance.

When asked for a comment, the Financial Service Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market declined to provide one.

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, resigned last month as CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange after pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering rules in the United States. As part of the agreement, the exchange agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion to conclude a U.S. probe that had been ongoing for years.

According to a representative for Binance, the decision to withdraw the license application was “unrelated” to the settlement deal reached in the United States.

Among the most critical locations for Binance is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been working hard to establish itself as a center for digital assets. As seen on its website, Binance has regulatory authorizations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Last year, Binance said it was working to develop Dubai’s cryptocurrency rules while recruiting more than one hundred people for roles in the city.

According to records filed in a court in the United States, former CEO Zhao, who was born in China but is a citizen of Canada, also became a citizen of the United Arab Emirates at the request of the UAE. According to the documents, Zhao has been named as the owner of two Dubai properties.

The new CEO, Richard Teng, spoke digitally at a conference that the Financial Times hosted in London on Tuesday. He stated that the firm’s Middle East and North Africa headquarters were in Dubai.

Additionally, he stated that the firm would “in due course” reveal the site of its worldwide headquarters. Still, he declined to provide any other information on the timing of this announcement.

During this year, Binance abandoned its participation in the license application process in Germany, withdrew from Cyprus, and announced that it would be departing the Netherlands. However, in August, it said it had established a Polish corporation to service customers in Belgium, even though financial regulators had ordered it to cease operations in Belgium.

Binance stated that the reason for the withdrawal from Cyprus was to concentrate on “fewer regulated entities in the EU,” which includes France, Italy, and Spain, in preparation for implementing the legislation governing crypto assets in the European Union.

Additionally, Binance has communicated that it will sell its Russian company and has ceased accepting new members in the United Kingdom. The relevant authorities denied Binance’s derivatives company a license to operate as a financial services provider in Australia.

This past week, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that it had initiated the process of barring Binance from the country.

On Thursday, a representative for Binance stated that the firm will continue collaborating with regulatory bodies to ” provide world-class services and offerings in the Middle East and beyond.”