The largest crypto exchange Binance announced its acquisition of India’s #1 crypto exchange WazirX. The acquisition enables Binance to serve its fiat Gateway to the Indian crypto community from November 25.
Binance Acquired WazirX
Per the reports, Binance now owns 100% of WazirX to serve over 1 billion people of India. The acquisition was announced Thursday morning without disclosing the specific price details of the deal but it is reported that the price falls in the range of $5-$10 million. More so, the trading platform will continue to run independently by WazirX.
Notably, WazirX is India’s #1 crypto exchange and it is the first major acquisition by Binance in the Indian crypto ecosystem. According to Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX, all 20 members will be employed by Binance but the exchange remained to continue its mission “to involve every Indian in the crypto revolution”.
WazirX has been operating as a Peer-to-peer crypto exchange in India as the country’s central Bank restricted banks to serve crypto-related transactions. This being said, Binance’s acquisition of WazirX revealed yet another thrilling update for the Indian crypto community. Binance will add an additional fiat-to-crypto gateway which enables Indian crypto traders and enthusiasts to continue trading with local fiat currency Indian Rupees using Binance’s new fiat gateway, starting Nov. 25.
Indian Crypto Community Welcoming Binance
Binance has been quite active to represent itself in various countries across the world and choosing WazirX for India which is a home for billion people is quite a win-win situation. On a similar note, Binance’s CFO Wei Zhou said: “Building fiat-to-crypto bridges remain a key mission for Binance”.
“The young demographic in India gives an edge to adopt and build new financial technologies, and I believe this will play a vital role in making India a global blockchain innovation center to also spur cryptocurrency adoption throughout the larger public in the country. The acquisition of WazirX shows our commitment and dedication to the Indian people and strengthen the blockchain ecosystem in India as well as another step forward in achieving the freedom of money, said Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance.com
The acquisition was warmly greeted by the entire Indian crypto community including top leaders. Kashif Raza from Crypto Kanoon (Indian crypto regulatory news and analysis platform) said;
“I think it is a great move and this news actually acts as a morale booster to a lot of crypto startups in India, said Raza. “Whenever there will be a point when Govt actually will like to sit with Indian players in this industry, I think Nischal is going to play an imp role in the future as well, Raza concluded.”
On the other side, Naimish Sanghvi, founder of the local news outlet, CoinCrunchIndia states that he caught this update roughly a month ago but the company’s stakeholders denied confirming anything.
However, as the news has now officially revealed by Binance as well as WazirX, the community is seeking if the Binance will list WazirX’s native token “WRX” which is currently available with approximately 64000 users. Moreover, WazirX’s CEO Nischal Shetty said that the acquisition will not have any effect on the #IndiaWantsCrypto campaign which Shetty started on Twitter back in 2018. It’s been over a year for the campaign that seeks positive crypto updates from the country’s lawmakers but voice remained unheard.
“I’ll also continue my India Wants Crypto campaign in order to bring about positive crypto regulations in India,” Shetty said, adding… We’re confident India will positively regulate crypto.
Notably, the crypto bill on “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019” which seeks 10 years of Jail term for crypto traders and enthusiasts hasn’t been heard yet. In fact, the crypto community in India named this bill as “flawed” and something that “makes no sense”. On top of all, the bill was not included in the next parliament session which according to Shetty “proves that India will listen to the crypto industry before deciding on the way forward”.
But only time knows when…
Image Source – Binance
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