Cryptocurrency

Binance US is Eyeing an IPO, Says Changpeng Zhao

Published

3 years ago

July 23, 2021

“Our partner in the U.S. is looking at the potential IPO [initial public offering] route,” Zhao said on Friday at the “Redefine Tomorrow” event organized by SCB 10X — the venture arm of Thailand’s oldest Siam Commercial Bank. The IPO route, however, “is not 100% fixed yet,” he said.

After Coinbase’s listing earlier this year on Nasdaq, the U.S. now has an ecosystem where crypto companies can go public, according to Zhao. Indeed, several U.S.-based crypto firms, including Gemini, Kraken, and Circle, are looking to do just that.

As for Binance itself, Zhao said an IPO is not in immediate plans, but that might change in the future. This is a notable change from what Zhao told The Block earlier this year. At the time, he said Binance wants to take a more crypto-native “path” forward, i.e., expanding the utility of its “utility token” BNB, instead of doing a traditional IPO.

But now before Binance itself could go for an IPO, it will need to change its company structure, said Zhao, because most regulators want to see a headquarters, an office, or a legal entity.

“We are setting up those structures,” he said. “Once those structures are in place, you may make it easier for an IPO to happen. So that’s not out of the question. But right now, we are still in the early stages.”

Compliance efforts
The crypto space is now “relatively heavily regulated,” according to Zhao. To that end, Binance has to make a “big pivot from a technology startup into a financial services company,” said Zhao.

Crypto now is “very much understood as a financial asset type, we just got to treat it as such, and we have got to run the company as such,” he said.

And given increased regulatory attention, Binance is also stepping up its compliance efforts, said Zhao. “We are hiring many traditional compliance people, also ex regulators” to improve Binance’s communication with regulators, he said. He acknowledged that communicating with regulators is currently not one of Binance’s core strengths.

Now Zhao is, in fact, looking for a new Binance CEO, one he hopes will have a “very strong regulatory background.” He first disclosed his plans to step down to The Block earlier this year. At the time, he said he would like to resign from the CEO role in the next two to five years to focus entirely on growing the BNB and Binance Smart Chain ecosystems. Those plans now appear to be firmer.

Binance has long been subject to global regulatory scrutiny, with an increased focus in recent weeks. Government agencies in the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Italy, Thailand, Poland, and the Cayman Islands, have all either issued warnings or taken action against the exchange.

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Cryptocurrency

Binance Expands Crypto Access in West and Central Africa With Mobile Money Integration

Published

4 days ago

October 18, 2024

Samed Olukoya

Binance, the world’s leading blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider continues to drive innovation and expand access to cryptocurrency in Africa, now allowing users in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Togo and Senegal to purchase crypto directly through mobile money payments enabled through local partnerships.

This new functionality further strengthens Binance’s commitment to providing simple and secure access to cryptocurrency for users across the continent, reinforcing the platform’s vision of financial inclusion.

Samantha Fuller, Spokeswoman for Binance says “We remain focused on advancing financial inclusion and delivering user-friendly solutions for crypto adoption across Africa. This expansion into West and Central Africa is a significant step in our mission to increase crypto adoption, providing millions of people with more direct access to the global digital economy”.

This new service currently supports only BUY transactions, further simplifying the entry point for new crypto users in these regions, while providing them with a reliable and secure platform to acquire digital assets.

How to buy crypto:

Log in to your Binance app and select [Add Funds] from the homepage.
Choose your local fiat currency you wish to use by selecting the currency in the top-right column.
Follow the instructions to complete your crypto purchase.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin Fails to Hold $63,000 Amid Weak Risk Appetite, Growing Selling Pressure

Published

2 weeks ago

October 8, 2024

Samed Olukoya

bitcoin to Nigerian Naira - Investors King

Bitcoin remains below $63,000 after failing to hold above it over the past two days while Ethereum is also struggling to reclaim $2,440.

The crypto market has been trading sideways since the beginning of this week.

The cautious moves in the crypto market come amid uncertainty over a range of economic and political factors in the US and geopolitics in the Middle East.

Add to that the potential selling pressure that the US government may exert with its permission to sell around 70,000 Bitcoin.

The Supreme Court has allowed the US Marshals Service to proceed with the sale of 69,370 Bitcoins seized from the Silk Road online store, which would be the largest sale of its kind in history. While the nature and pace of this selling is not yet known, it will not necessarily put downward pressure on prices if it is done in over-the-counter (OTC)
transactions, according to Beincrypto.

As for the economic side, in light of the surprise labor market numbers that were much better than expected and Jerome Powell’s hawkish speech, hopes for a rapid continuation of interest rate cuts this year have diminished. While the relatively high rates remain for a longer period and the continued rise in Treasury bond yields will weaken appetite for risky assets in general, including cryptocurrencies.

Whereas, after the hypothesis of a half-percentage point cut at the next November meeting was the most likely, it has now become excluded in the Fed Fund futures market, and the probability of a quarter-percentage point cut has become 87%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. The remaining 13% is for the possibility of keeping current rates unchanged.

The state of caution may also prevail in the markets in the coming weeks, as we anticipate the presidential elections in the United States, which will begin next month. While the outcome of these elections could cause a structural shift in the crypto industry.

Far away, in the Middle East, markets are still anticipating the nature of the expected escalation in the region, especially regarding the nature of the Israeli response to the unprecedented attack from Iran and the nature of the counter-response. While one of the most prominent scenarios is targeting energy facilities, which would bring inflation back to the forefront, which in turn may require central banks to keep interest rates high.

Cryptocurrency

Will Pump-and-Dump Fun Kill the Meme Coin Frenzy in 2024?

Published

1 month ago

September 15, 2024

Temitayo Olukoya

The meme coin market, once dominated by viral hits like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, is facing a new challenge in 2024: the rise of pump-and-dump schemes masquerading as community-driven fun.

These events, organized on social media platforms, encourage participants to collectively buy a meme coin, inflating its price before early investors quickly sell, leaving many with heavy losses.

While pump-and-dump schemes are not new to crypto, 2024 has seen them take on a new form in the meme coin space, branded as “fun events” or “pump parties.” Communities treat these schemes as a kind of joke, with memes about losing money or rockets crashing back to Earth, softening the blow of financial risk. However, this emerging trend has begun to erode trust in meme coins.

Meme coins, by nature, thrive on internet culture, hype, and community sentiment. Their value is rarely tied to any real utility, making them particularly susceptible to manipulation. As more pump-and-dump schemes surface, many fear that investors, especially newcomers, may begin to associate all meme coins with high risk and fleeting value.

This shift could mark the beginning of the end for the meme coin craze. Established tokens like Dogecoin may survive thanks to their strong communities, but lesser-known meme coins may struggle to gain traction as pump-and-dump events increase skepticism.

The future of meme coins depends on whether the community can move past these schemes and find more sustainable ways to build value—or risk being seen as nothing more than a fleeting, high-stakes game.