Tuesday, August 21, 2018

World's largest crypto exchange Binance has bought the wallet company Trust Wallet

The world's largest crypto exchange based on volume, Binance, has bought the wallet company Trust Wallet in its first acquisition. The company confirmed to TechCrunch the purchase was based on a mixture of Binance stock and a portion of its BNB token.

Trust Wallet will remain headquartered in the US
Trust Wallet will remain based in the US after the deal. However, Binance now based in Malta will help to run the administrative side of the business and also areas such as marketing.
In an interview Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told TechCrunch: “The Trust Wallet team shares the same values as us and the products are very complementary. For users who like to withdraw funds into a wallet now we have a product they can use. We plan to keep the app as independent as possible. There will be more features going into it but not so much from a Binance demand perspective. We are like the addition of a godfather for the baby… there’ll be some cooperation.” Although Trust Wallet is not as well known as some other wallets, Zhao called it a "diamond in the dirt" with strong technical skills.
Zhao said the company had not done much marketing an area where Binance could help. Now they are merged with Binance they will not need to worry about money.
Trust Wallet cancelled recent ICO
Binance is flush with money making a profit of $450 to $500 million in its first year of operation.
Money is, indeed, not a huge issue for Binance these days. The company uses 20 percent of its profits to buy back its BNB token.
Last month, Trust Wallet held an ICO to raise capital but then canceled it and returned the money to the investors. The founder of Trust Wallet, Viktor Radchenko told Tech Crunch: “I’m a product person and developer. I spend my time thinking about solving problems for the end-user. I never liked dealing with investors and money people, it is so much hassle. Having resources will help us grow quicker and so I can focus on adaption for the users that don’t even have wallets.”
Trust Wallet to expand
Radchenko intends to double the size of the development team from five to ten. The app is now based on Ethereum and Ethereum based tokens but the plan is to add support from other blockchains. This would include bitcoin, EOS, and NEO.
Trust Wallet will be one of several wallets supported by Binance
Binance intends to allow users to trade directly with one another. Zhao said the project is already under active development but he would not put a date on when it would be ready. Buying Trust Wallet is likely to be just the first of many Binance acquisitions. Zhao said that the company plans a one billion dollar fund and intends to make 10 to 20 investments per year with the addition of several strategic investments.

Zhao saId: “We’re looking for strong tech teams. Acquisition will be a very key component to continuing to grow and contributing to this industry.“Our requirements are very specific, we are looking for speed, there’s no need for fancy smart contracts. We didn’t find the right match for an acquisition [but are] still very open to someone who makes an ultra-fast blockchain.”
Binance
According to Wikipedia: "Binance is an international, multi-language cryptocurrency exchange. The service raised 15 million dollars in a July 2017 Initial Coin Offering for its ERC-20 BNB token."
Founder Changpeng Zhao originally founded Fusion Systems in 2005 in China, building high-frequency trading systems for brokers. However, in 2013 he joined Blockchain.info as the third member of this cryptocurrency wallet team. He worked other places as well.
Although founded in China Binance Exchange moved out of China before its ban on cryptocurrency trading in September of 2017. It moved into Japan but has established offices in Taiwan. It later moved to Malta. As of January 2018 it was the largest crypto-exchange in the world by volume, with a market capitalization of the BNB token at $1.3 billion. Users of the exchange get a 50 percent discount if they pay their fees with the BNB token.
Previously published in Digital Journal

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