Leading Crypto exchange Binance announced strategic investment in FTX
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Official statement of Binance
In the press release, the exchange mentioned, “Binance has received a portion of FTT from the investment in FTX. The vast majority of Binance’s FTT are locked over a two year period." Binance will work for the long-term, sustainable growth of both FTT and the FTX ecosystem.
However, according to FTX, the leading exchange is the first and the only outside investor in the platform. The deal value is still unknown.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO, FTX stated, “Binance is a market leader which has strong synergy with derivatives platforms, and we appreciate their global industry leadership, consistent execution, and innovation. The investment will help accelerate the growth of FTX with support and strategic advisory from Binance while FTX maintains its independent operations”.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Founder and CEO, Binance stated, “The FTX team has built an innovative crypto trading platform with stunning growth. With their backgrounds as professional traders, we see quite a bit ourselves in the FTX team and believe in their potential in becoming a major player in the crypto derivatives markets. We are pleased to have an excellent partner joining the company's ecosystem and aim to grow the crypto market together.”
Growing Competition in the crypto derivative space
Well, the launch of FTX took place in May 2019 and soon became one of the most popular crypto-derivate exchanges. It claims to reach the trading volume of $500 million per day but still lacks a prominent market share. The current top players of the crypto derivate market are BitMEX, OKEx, and Huobi. Binance entered the derivatives areas a few months ago. The exchange currently offers Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in the platform. Currently, some firms offer an attractive range of derivatives including futures, options, and swaps. Bakkt recently launched its cash-settled Bitcoin futures and CME Group too is expected to launch such products soon.
Wei Zhou, CFO Binance has stated, “Continuing to offer better trading products and platforms has always been our goal. The crypto exchange segment is increasingly competitive and Binance is also in competition with our own portfolio companies. We encourage positive competition as well as partnership that strive to bring the best products and services to the market”
Recent acquisitions
Binance acquired JEX – a lesser-known derivatives platform in September. The platform became Binance JEX after the acquisition. It also acquired Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX and Decentralized applications analytics platform DappReview.