Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a common theme within the capital markets industry and as the cryptocurrency ecosystem matures, M&A announcements are expected to follow the same trend.
The news today is that Binance, one of the world’s largest virtual currency operators, has acquired cryptocurrency wallet provider Trust Wallet in an effort to give control back to its customers.
Binance Acquires Cryptocurrency Wallet Provider Trust Wallet
Binance has entered the M&A space for the first time, choosing to buy the cryptocurrency wallet provider and decentralized-application browser.
Trust Wallet was launched in November 2017 and enjoys a reputation for security by never requesting user data or private information, as Binance CEO, Zhao Changpeng told Bloomberg.
“The users control 100 percent of their funds. Now we have both a decentralized and centralized solution for custody.”
With this deal, Binance will add an on-chain mobile wallet to the list of the operator’s services possibilities. The acquired company will maintain an autonomous brand, which is free to develop the core product and explore the exchange’s broad user base and the upcoming decentralized exchange.
This open source, decentralized and anonymous Ethereum, ERC20, ERC223, and ERC721 mobile wallet gives customers the ability to store over 20,000 different Ethereum-based tokens. Its guiding principles state they will never access user wallets, hold private keys, or ask for personal information from users. Binance now has the best of both worlds, according to Changpeng.
“Wallets are the most fundamental interface to the crypto economy, and a secure and easy-to-use wallet is key to proliferate the adoption of cryptocurrencies,” he said. “Trust Wallet is simply the best in this category in my opinion. Trust Wallet is an on-chain wallet, where user private keys are decentralized, ie, stored on user devices. This compliments the centralized architecture of Binance nicely. Now we have the best of both worlds, and users have their choice.”
Binance Probes Cryptocurrency Ecosystem for More M&A Deals
Zhao told Bloomberg that the acquisition of Trust Wallet was not highly priced and that the cryptocurrency wallet provider does not have a lot of users, which indicates that Binance values its core technology. The virtual currency operator is said to be probing the market for more deals and it is in early-stage talks with other companies.
Binance, who celebrated its first year of operations on July 14th, rose to prominence in the first six months live and has been disputing the first place in the cryptocurrency exchange ranking since then.
