According to the announcement, Binance will introduce more utility to the JEX token and further provide Binance users with professional services including futures contracts, options and other derivative products.
Binance, the world’s largest exchange by trading volume, has acquired JEX, a crypto-asset trading platform that offers spot and derivatives trading services.
The exchange announced the acquisition on Sept. 2, saying, “JEX will join the Binance ecosystem as Binance JEX and focus on further building the crypto-asset derivatives market.”
Binance shows growing interest in the cryptocurrency derivatives market
Binance’s acquisition of JEX comes amidst continued interest of the exchange in the crypto derivatives market.
Binance co-founder Yi He, reportedly said that JEX developed solid derivatives product offerings, which are aligned with Binance’s product roadmaps in the crypto-asset derivatives market. He added:
“We hold an open mind and welcome more partners to join the Binance ecosystem. We look forward to delivering more innovative derivative products in the future as Binance JEX.”
On Aug. 28, Cointelegraph reported that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao – better known by his industry moniker “CZ” – announced that Binance was planning to launch futures trading this month. Just two days earlier, Binance had announced the launch of its first crypto lending product, allowing users to earn interest from Binance Coin (BNB), Tether (USDT) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).
Asset Management Giant Wants Government Money Market Fund on Stellar
American asset management firm Franklin Templeton Investments has filed a preliminary prospectus with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a government money market fund with a focus on blockchain-based shares.
According to a Sept. 3 SEC filing, Franklin Templeton’s fund will make investments in a range of products such as U.S. government securities, repurchase agreements, and blockchain-based shares. However, the document notes that the fund will not invest in cryptocurrencies.
Stellar network-recorded shares
Franklin Templeton has chosen the Stellar network to record the ownership of the fund’s shares. The fund’s investment manager ostensibly believes that blockchain-based shares will boost transparency and reduce settlement times, among other benefits to shareholders.
The document further explains that clients will be able to buy and redeem shares of the fund through a special app, where each investor will receive a blockchain wallet and a corresponding pair of public and private keys after an account is created.
It is said that the fund will invest at least 99.5% of its total assets in government securities, cash and repurchase agreements, all collateralized fully by government securities or cash.
New prospects for Stellar
This summer, major global firms including the Stellar Foundation, Ethereum Foundation and Fidelity began supporting a new blockchain accelerator program called Startup Studio. The project is set up to provide workshops to blockchain startups to help them enhance product design, law and engineering, smart contract development, finance and hiring – among others.
Stellar also partnered with IBM in an effort to create a real-time, controlled global payment network. The deployment of Stellar protocol will purportedly allow IBM Blockchain World Wire to serve as a network provider for international payments.
Binance Labs Leads $5.7M Series A Round to Launch FIO Protocol
A venture arm of major global crypto exchange Binance has led a $5.7 million funding round to launch new decentralized blockchain protocol, the FIO Protocol.
According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Sept. 5, Binance labs has invested in Denver-based blockchain usability firm Dapix, which is developing the Foundation of Interwallet Operability’s (FIO) Usability Protocol.
The Series A round was also participated by existing investors such as Access Venture Partners and Dundee Venture Capital, as well as new investors including Blockwall Capital, NGC Ventures and LuneX Ventures.
The funding round will allow the initial launch of the FIO Protocol, a decentralized, open-source blockchain protocol that is designed to improve usability across multiple blockchains, tokens or coins. The protocol is claimed to set alongside other blockchains as a service layer to eliminate risks and complexity in sending and receiving tokens across different blockchains.
Bitcoin.com, ShapeShift among FIO members
The Foundation of Interwallet Operability is a consortium of major crypto wallet services, exchanges and crypto payment processors supporting the FIO Protocol. To date, the consortium includes 24 members such as major crypto wallet and statistics resource Bitcoin.com, Swiss crypto exchange platform ShapeShift, Binance’s Trust Wallet, Atomic Wallet, Enjin Wallet and others.
The news comes amid the debut of the FIO Address Presale, where users of various major wallets can reserve FIO usernames: cross-chain, human-readable identifiers that eliminate the need to see blockchain public addresses.
The presale and the new funding round will enable FIO Protocol developers to deliver its mainnet launch in early 2020.
