Binance CEO Wants to be ‘Bridge’ for Crypto, Traditional FIs

Binance Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao is reportedly considering buying banks, saying such a move would build a bridge between crypto and traditional finance. 

Zhao said this during an interview at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (Nov. 2). 

“There are people who hold certain types of local licenses, traditional banking, payment-service providers, even banks. We’re looking at those things,” Zhao said. 

Binance would consider both minority investments and full acquisitions and expects that a bank’s share price would rise after signing a deal with Binance, Zhao said, without saying if the company had identified a target.

PYMNTS has reached out to Binance for comment. 

Zhao said in October that Binance could spend over $1 billion on acquisitions and investments, even in spite of the ongoing crypto winter. 

Thus far, the crypto exchange has committed $325 million to 67 projects this year — an amount that is up from the $140 million it devoted to 73 projects last year. 

In September, Binance partnered with embedded payments finance platform Inswitch to enable the latter to offer Binance Pay to all merchants in Latin America. 

The new feature will allow merchants to get paid in more than 50 cryptocurrencies instantly while also supporting new products or business models and accepting recurring payments globally. 

Earlier that same month, Binance was in talks with Nigerian authorities to fast-track blockchain tech for the country by establishing a digital economic zone. 

The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority said at the time that it would consider making a digital hub similar to the Dubai virtual free zone. The government passed regulations this year for digital assets trading, while the Nigeria Exchange will start a blockchain-enabled platform to boost trade.