Malta-based Binance has acquired India’s leading digital asset platform WazirX, enabling crypto traders in India to buy and sell Bitcoin and other digital assets with fiat currencies.
Starting November 25th, users will be able to log in to the Binance Fiat Gateway, a fiat-to-crypto portal, to convert Indian rupees (INR) into cryptocurrencies. WazirX’s integration is designed to help bring crypto to over a billion people.
Users will be able to place orders on Binance.com and the Binance iOS or Android app to purchase Tether (USDT) against INR. The Q1 2020 integration will allow users to trade any digital asset available on Binance.com by buying USDT from the WazirX digital asset marketplace.
The WazirX acquisition and integration are part of Binance’s global efforts to bring cryptocurrency trading and adoption to people around the world. Launched in 2018, WazirX has more than 200,000 app downloads. It now joins Binance’s growing list of global partners, including Simplex, Paxos and Flutterwave that give people an easy way to buy crypto.
Says Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao,
“The young demographic in India give an edge to adopt and build on 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.”
In addition to providing an advanced cryptocurrency trading platform to Indian users, Binance listed the India-based startup Matic Network on its launchpad platform for its initial round of fundraising, and Marlin Protocol secured a $3 million in seed funding from the company’s investment arm.
Binance also licenses its matching engine and wallet technologies to several partner platforms for fiat-crypto trading in Uganda, Jersey, Singapore and the US.
India remains a hotspot of regulatory uncertainty with the country’s central bank, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), issuing repeated warnings about cryptocurrencies and banning banks that provide services to crypto-related businesses. However, the bank admits to banning cryptocurrencies without doing any research to weigh the pros and cons of the technology, reports Hard Fork.
Meanwhile, India is grappling with money laundering scandals that have fleeced traditional banking customers out of billions.
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