The world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, plans to invest in non-crypto companies to enlarge the boundaries of the crypto-sector in the mainstream, said Chengpeng Zhao, founder, and CEO of Binance, in an interview with Financial Times.
C.Z. added;
We want to identify and invest in one or two targets in every economic sector and try to bring them into crypto. So the strategy is about making the crypto industry bigger.
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In the last month, Binance has purchased the stakes of U.S.-based publication, Forbes, for $200 million, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The giant exchange had once filed a case against Forbes nearly a year ago, and now it has become one of the two largest owners of this publisher.
At the time of investment, Mike Ferdele, CEO at Forbes, stated;
With Binance’s investment in Forbes, we now have the experience, network, and resources of the world’s leading crypto exchange and one of the world’s most successful blockchain innovators.
Similarly, the world’s biggest exchange by trading volume is also investing in cryptocurrencies. It has set its own fiat-to-crypto payment platform Bifinity to provide merchants crypto-ready businesses. Last week, it lent $36 million to Eqonex, which can be converted into an equity stake. Eqonex is a publicly trading digital assets platform, the parent company of Digivault, which was the first to get regulatory approval from FCA last year.
Binance VS FCA
Binance also managed to set a deal with Paysafe to get access with Faster Payment Service, a significant payment service of the U.K., allowing businesses and individuals to transfer funds between payment service providers in no time.
Afterward, the FCA expressed concerns over the giant exchange, as a crypto platform got access to the country’s primary payment network. However, the officials added that though they have “limited powers” to object to these types of settlements, the “concerns over Binance remain.”
On the Bifinity’s move to lend Eqonex, FCA stated;
Eqonex Limited is the parent company of Digivault Limited, one of the crypto asset businesses registered by the FCA under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs). As a result of the transaction, individuals and entities that are part of the Binance Group may have become beneficial owners of Digivault for the purposes of the MLRs.
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In the official blog post, FCA added that their concerns remain until any outstanding issues are identified in Binance Market Limited. It includes all the crypto-oriented businesses highlighted in a supervisory letter last year. It signifies that crypto entities would need to comply with the sanctions.
Previous year’s crackdown by regulators targeted giant crypto exchange Binance many times. In turn, now it employs 70 individuals in the U.K., most of them handling regulatory concerns, as reported by Financial Times.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com