Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao speaking at an “Ask Us Anything” conference. Binance
Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has started the new year by adding a number of fiat funding options, including a faster GBP payments service, the company said in a blog post on 7 January.
According to the announcement, the addition of the new fiat payment options comes through a new partnership with fiat-to-crypto payments provider Banxa, a company specialized in internationally compliant fiat-to-crypto gateways.
The new partnership allows the exchange to offer Australian dollar and Euro purchases, directly from Binance’s website. It will also allow Binance customers to make use of a “near-instantaneous low-fee GBP bank transfers”.
Banxa’s CEO, Holger Arians, commented on the benefits that Binance could make use of:
“Banxa allows crypto exchanges, wallets and other crypto platforms to offer instant fiat to crypto conversions. With only one integration, our partners benefit from both local and global payment options while Banxa takes care of all regulation, compliance and chargebacks.”
On the same day, Binance released one more blog post, announcing that it will support deposits in Thai baht as well, this time thanks to a partnership with API solutions provider Satang Corp.
The partnership will see Binance use a newly-released API, which will allow users to deposit and withdraw Thai baht directly to their accounts.
Binance, which now offers 21 different fiat payment options, has further added that it has plans to add support for “all 180 fiat currencies” in 2020. Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), commented on the benefits these partnerships could bring, considering the prevalence of fiat currencies.
He said:
“We believe fiat will co-exist with crypto for a long time to come. More than 99.9% of the global money supply is still in fiat and we need to continue building bridges to enable easier flow into crypto.”
Binance started to shift away from pure crypto-to-crypto trading back in October 2019, when the exchange announced its first fiat-to-cryptocurrency trading pair, the Russian ruble.
CZ said at the time:
“We’re adding support for fiat trading. In about two weeks or so, we should have support for Russian rubles trading directly. So you can buy cryptocurrencies on Binance.com using rubles.”
Earlier today, Binance put up $1 million in its BNB token to kick-start a donations program which will fund relief for areas affected by Australia’s bushfires.
CZ commented in a statement:
“Donating for Australia Bushfires charity program is the most direct and effective approach to make an impact, and we are also calling for the whole crypto community to join us in supporting Australia.”