Cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which is headquartered in Malta, is opening a new office in Beijing in addition to the mainland office that the exchange currently has in Shanghai. The news came in a report from CoinDesk, citing two sources “with knowledge of the matter.”
While neither a timeline for when the office will be opened nor exactly what purpose the office will serve has been established, the office’s opening seems to come at a particularly strategic time for Binance. Late last week, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping remarked that blockchain would be an important part of China’s future.
On the same day, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted about his observation that statements that have been made by political figures in China (namely, the 2016 Chairman of the Central Bank of China) have been a positive thing for the industry in the past, possibly pointing to a belief that China’s stance on blockchain technology is an important influencing factor in the global cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Binance takes further steps toward Chinese market
However, even before Xi’s remarks on the 25th and the alleged plans to open the office that has followed, Binance was already taking steps to build a positive relationship with Chinese authorities.
When Binance originally announced Venus, its global cryptocurrency project, earlier this year, the exchange published the announcement in Chinese before it published an English-language version.
Additionally, Dovey Wan, founding partner at Primitive Crypto and well-known Crypto Twitter commentator, pointed out that the language in the Chinese announcement was much richer than that in the English announcement.
a side by side read of the English announcement vs the Chinese announcementhttps://t.co/101UpGy5QL
TLDR; The English one is just an announcement the Chinese one is a manifesto
— Dovey “Rug The Fiat” Wan🪐🦖 (@DoveyWan) August 19, 2019
Additionally, in an interview with Bloomberg, Binance co-founder He Yi also described Venus as a “Belt as well as Road variation of Libra, referencing China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
Cofounder of Binance .@heyibinance said “Venus” is the “One-belt-one-road version of Libra”
Totally nailed it 💯💯💯 pic.twitter.com/RqfaPH8zE1
— Dovey “Rug The Fiat” Wan🪐🦖 (@DoveyWan) August 19, 2019
Binance launched p2p trading for Chinese market earlier this month
Earlier this month, Binance also launched peer-to-peer crypto trading against the Chinese Yuan (CNY) on its Android application.
Last night, @Binance Launches P2P Trading, starting with China. Most of CT probably can't use it yet, but 1.4 billion people can. We will expand the service to other regions soon.
Anything that makes it easier to get #crypto.https://t.co/GX1sPK8Hql
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) October 9, 2019
However, a bit of confusion around the product ensued after reports emerged that WeChat and AliPay could be used to deposit cryptocurrency on the p2p trading platform. Changpeng Zhao clarified the matter on Twitter, saying that “Binance is not working directly with WeChat or Alipay. However, users are able to use them in P2P transactions for payment.”
(Photo: Binance)
