Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao speaking at a conference. CoinDesk
Popular crypto exchange Binance will be opening a new digital asset trading platform for both institutional and retail investors in the United Kingdom, Reuters reported on 17 June.
According to the publication, the new Binance platform will aim to tap the institutional investment market in the area, and also meet the increasing demand for digital asset investments. Similarly to its other platforms, such as Binance Uganda, Singapore, and U.S., the new U.K. platform will be launched with around 65 digital assets listed, and will also offer a local fiat on-ramp into crypto.
Binance will also make sure that the crypto trading experience on its platform is smoother for all investors, by using the U.K.’s Faster Payments Service and the Single Euro Payments Area network for direct deposits and withdrawals from bank accounts. The new platform will also be under the watchful eye of the United Kingdom’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The new director for Binance U.K. Teana Baker-Taylor, who joined the exchange just last month, will be responsible for leading the exchange’s expansion across Europe. She told Reuters:
“Interest and participation in the UK digital asset markets is growing; not just in-depth with its current participants, but also in breadth. As crypto services mature and evolve, we’re able to create new options to engage and capture interest from a wider audience with varying risk appetites, such as products that earn a yield for participation, like staking and passive savings.”
Binance has claimed that its platform saw a 47% increase in the number of institutional clients from the last quarter of 2019 to the first one in 2020. It has further claimed that its institutional volumes on spot transactions had increased by 113% during Q1 2020, and that the firm had registered a 217% increase on future investments.