In a recent blog post Binance have announced the acquisition of WazirX, a crypto exchange platform based in India. There have been no details listed with regards to the deal, but rumours are circulating that the firm was acquired for a price tag between $5 million and $10 million.
Many will be surprised that Binance have chosen to enter the Indian market as the local crypto industry has faced disruption, when last year the Reserve Bank of India put a stop to all financial institutions having any involvement with crypto businesses. The implementation of this ban forced many exchanges to shut down, whereas others such as WazirX adopted a strategy to avoid fiat, instead offering crypto-to-crypto and peer-to-peer trades.
Joining forces with Binance surely has its benefits, as it has just recently used its Binance Fiat Gateway to launch Indian Rupees - skirting around the current banking problem local exchanges have faced. The company states that users will now be able to purchase USDT (Tether) stable coin with rupees using the WazirX platform, in addition to using USDT for trading any cryptocurrency found on the Binance platform.
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, has expressed the ‘commitment and dedication’ the company has for the people of India and they are happy to face the potential risks in order to expand their foothold in a market with mass potential. As Binance continue their quest to build fiat-to-crypto bridges, the acquisition appears to be a perfect fit for the exchange to provide a service to a country with reportedly more than 1.5 million BTC users. It seems the only move that could stop Binance in its tracks is if the Indian government were to ban cryptocurrency completely.