28.03.2024

Binance Acquires Indonesian Crypto Exchange Tokocrypto

Binance has not made public the amount involved in the deal, but crypto publication The Block has revealed that the exchange now owns a controlling stake in the little known Indonesian platform.

In an announcement the exchange published on Tuesday, May 12, the investment sees Binance take its latest step in expanding its services via a regulated cryptocurrency platform in one of the fastest-growing markets.

Leading crypto exchange Binance also acquired India’s WazirX crypto exchange

Major crypto exchange and trading platform Binance acquires a stake in yet another business weeks after completing the acquisition of CoinMarketCap

Binance has reportedly acquired a controlling stake in Indonesian-based crypto exchange, Tokocrypto.

Tokocrypto is a regulated crypto provider whose business in Indonesia has grown over the last two years owing to the growing popularity of crypto in the country. According to Binance, the acquisition of Tokocrypto provides it with an opportunity to offer its crypto products to more people as it expands across the Southeast Asian nation.

The funding is also set to allow Binance to help Tokocrypto with technology enhancements that can boost the local platform’s expansion as well as efforts to promote blockchain education.

The Indonesian exchange launched its services in the country in 2018 and is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, the country’s crypto markets regulator. Tokocrypto’s reputation has also been enhanced by its partnership with QCP Capital, a Singaporean crypto market.

The problem with Tokocrypto’s business has been the low volumes witnessed since it launched, despite having a license from regulators in the country. The platform’s 24-hour trading volumes pale in comparison with Indodax, the top crypto platform in Indonesia. The country’s largest exchange saw over $8 million worth of trades in the past 24 hours, while Binance’s new venture did volumes of about $700,000.

Indodax has also had about 3 million visitors in the past month, five times more than what Tokocrypto managed over the same period (about 6,000 visitors in April).

Binance’s attraction to this latest acquisition is likely the potential of the 270 million people who could get onboard Tokocrypto.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated as much, commenting in a blog post the exchange posted as it announced the deal. According to Zhao, “fast technology adoption, strong economic growth, and the world’s fourth-largest population”, makes Indonesia attractive as a place that could develop into a leading destination of blockchain.

Bitcoin News Summary – May 4, 2020

The Brave browser, known for its Basic Attention Token crypto rewards for viewing ads, announced integration with the Binance exchange. The latest desktop version of Brave features a widget that allows users to buy and trade crypto through Binance, as well as view and manage their crypto portfolio. The widget should launch on Brave’s mobile version later this year.

Major crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX has banned all Japanese users from trading. Existing Japanese residents will not be able to place new orders and new users are not able to sign up. The ban is a result of necessary compliance with new financial regulations passed in Japan.

American venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, known for its 300 million dollar fund which invested in promising crypto companies. Has announced a second such fund which has $515 million for investment into blockchain projects.

A city in China’s Sichuan region published a guidance as to how to seize the “strategic opportunity of the blockchain sector” through the use of the area’s overabundance of hydropower electricity. By employing the advantages of its hydropower resources, the city could become a key player in terms of Bitcoin mining.

In an unusual deviation from the norm, Bitcoin miners just produced an extra 10 blocks on Saturday. While 6 Bitcoin blocks are usually mined per hour, 4 of the extra blocks were found in less than a minute. This unusual occurrence was most likely a product of random chance.

Before we conclude, this week’s “Bitcoin quick question” is what is a Bitcoin whale?

The term Bitcoin whale refers to players that hold large amounts of Bitcoin under their control.  Whales can have a major effect on the market if they decide to dump their coins, also known as a “bear whale”.

Whales are often considered the source behind market volatility and they are sometimes criticized for manipulating the price of a certain coin in order to, later on, sell it higher or buy it cheap.

Known Bitcoin whales include Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, The Winkelvoss twins, Tim Draper, Barry Silbert, the US government since it seizes large amounts of Bitcoin from illegal activity and several Bitcoin related investment firms such as Pantera Capital.

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