Vertex Ventures Invests in Binance to Boost Expansion in Southeast Asia
Oct 23, 2018, 3:53PM
Temasek Holdings’ venture capital division Vertex Ventures has reportedly invested in Binance to aid the launch of its new crypto-fiat exchange.
Asian investment firm Vertex Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in cryptocurrency exchange Binance, according to a report by business publication Bloomberg. Notably, Vertex Ventures is the venture capital arm of Singapore’s state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings. The news comes a month after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao teased the launch of the exchange’s long-awaited crypto-to-fiat platform. So far, the company has only opened the closed-beta platform to a small pool of investors.
The investment is a joint collaboration between Vertex Ventures’ two regional divisions, China and Southeast Asia. According to Reuters, this influx of cash will help Binance expedite its expansion process across the Asian continent. For now, however, Binance is scheduled to publicly launch its crypto-fiat platform by the end of this year. The new exchange will allow users to swap between crypto and fiat currencies, including presumably, the Singapore dollar.
The Malta-based company has stated that the current Binance exchange will continue to operate as a separate entity, serving the crypto-to-crypto trading audience. Launched in early 2017, Binance has quickly climbed the ladder to become one of the world’s top cryptocurrency exchanges. According to data from Coinmarketcap, the exchange traded around $750 million worth of crypto in the past 24 hours, almost double that of its nearest competitor OKEx.
Binance is also expected to launch a decentralized trading platform sometime in 2019. In March 2018, Zhao said that the Binance decentralized exchange (DEX) will steer away from “the current model of tight control on the digital assets that are traded on its exchange.” In August, he tweeted a video of him demonstrating a pre-alpha version of the platform.
Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.
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