Binance opens the fiat floodgates, accepting credit card payments for crypto | Video shows Kik CEO discussing ICO pre-sale: “It will become super valuable”
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Binance opens the fiat floodgates, accepting credit card payments for crypto
Video shows Kik CEO discussing ICO pre-sale: “It will become super valuable”
“Turn the cameras off. That’s going to haunt me one day. I hope not. Ooh, I’m already picturing it” — Ted Livingston, CEO Kik
The Big Block
Binance, the largest spot cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is now accepting credit and debit cards for crypto payments, the firm announced Thursday.
Malta-based Binance is a crypto to crypto exchange, meaning traders do not deposit fiat onto its platform, but the surprise move to accept credit and debit cards effectively provides a fiat onramp for users around the world.
“We want to provide Binance traders with fast and easy access to crypto, in the most secure way possible,” Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, chief executive of Binance said in a news release. “With most of the world’s money still resting in fiat, building fiat gateways is what we need now to grow the ecosystem and create more long-term opportunities for crypto.”
Binance, which has a stronghold on trading in Asia and sees $2.3 billion worth of crypto trade hands on its venue in a given week, has yet to notably cut into the marketshare of U.S.-based crypto venues. But that could change if users are able to purchase bitcoin using a credit card, insiders say, putting it in direct competition with Coinbase, which is one of the few exchanges to accept credit and debit cards for those outside the U.S., as well as bank account transfers. “Some countries and states in the U.S. will be limited but those are limitations from the Simplex side, not Binance’s,” a Binance spokesperson told The Block.
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Around The Block
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