Binance, the top crypto exchange by trading volume, has acquired the well-known Indian crypto exchange platform WazirX.
The transaction was estimated at $5-10 million, according to sources of the Economic Times.
WazirX’s peer-to-peer (P2P) engine will be integrated into the Binance Fiat Gateway platform in the first quarter of 2020, allowing users to trade any digital asset available on Binance with the purchase of USDT or Tether, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, from the WazirX P2P market.
“The young demographic in India gives 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 centre to also spur cryptocurrency adoption throughout the larger public in the country,” said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
“India will be one of our first forays into stimulating financial growth and access in developing nations beyond the country,” said Zhao. “We will be continuing to work towards furthering crypto adoption, lowering the barrier to entry. One of the main goals is to add more fiat currencies to Binance and work with local partners to add as many fiat-to-crypto pairs as possible.”
“WazirX was launched in March 2018 and has witnessed substantial growth in volume and adoption since then despite regulatory hiccups. The platform innovated and launched WazirX P2P – the world’s first auto-matching P2P engine – shortly after the RBI imposed a banking ban on cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. The move proved to be a game-changer and made the platform cheapest, fastest, and simplest way to trade cryptocurrencies using INR in India. Following the Binance acquisition, WazirX will be able to extend its P2P advantage to more countries and solve crypto conversion problem for the masses,” says official press-release at WazirX wevsite.
WazirX has more than 200,000 app downloads with an average rating of 4.4