According to a Bloomberg report, the CEO of the Binance exchange, Changpeng Zhao, would like to spend $1 billion on a major deal to buy a bank.
The goal would be to make Binance a bridge between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies and also to make trading easier for users. This is what CZ said during the Web Summit event that is being held these days in Lisbon.
Bloomberg, citing what was said during the Binance CEO speech, reported:
“There Are People Who Have Certain Types Of Local Licenses, Traditional Banking, Payment Service Providers, Even Banks. We’re Looking At Those Things.”
Zhao also pointed out that investing in banks is a smart strategy for Binance because when the cryptocurrency exchange partners with a bank, Binance often ends up attracting many new users, increasing the bank’s valuation.
Binance acquisitions: will a bank be next?
Last month, Zhao declared that Binance has more than $1 billion to invest in new acquisitions, and recently pledged $500 million to help Elon Musk buy Twitter for a total of $44 billion.
So far in 2022, Binance has made several acquisitions across publishing, decentralized finance (DeFi), and even NFT, so who knows if the rest of the available money will be invested just in acquiring a bank.
The latest news on Binance
Recently, Binance Pay, the payment platform created by Binance, partnered with Crypto Air Tickets for users to pay directly in Binance Coin (BNB) for airline ticket purchases.
In fact, this was already possible through Travala, a travel platform similar to Booking.com but using crypto payments, with Binance as one of its investors.
Binance at Web Summit
On stage also in Lisbon, the CEO of Binance also spoke yesterday about the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in terms of regulation.
Cryptocurrency regulation is an issue that has always been close to the heart of Binance, and it is working to open offices around the world and seek authorizations in the countries where it operates.
With this in mind, it was thanks to Binance’s mediation with countries such as France, Spain, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi that it was possible to start the path that led these countries through their respective regulators to being important cryptocurrency trading venues.
The Binance CEO described the regulators of the countries described above as “smart” in the sense that they were able to cooperate and allow new resources, such as cryptocurrencies, to flow into their economies.
