Major crypto exchange Binance has made its first public acquisition, having bought Trust Wallet, according to an announcement July 31. Launched in 2017, U.S.-based Trust Wallet is an open source, anonymous, and decentralized wallet that supports Ethereum (ETH) and over 20,000 different Ethereum-based tokens (ERC20, ERC223, and ERC721).
While the details of the deal are not disclosed, Binance told TechCrunch that it paid in a mixture of fiat money, Binance stocks, and its own BNB token. Trust Wallet will remain autonomous in most of its operations, while Binance will help with administration and work on marketing development.
Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao stressed that Trust Wallet is a strong team in terms of technical knowledge, but requires assistance with their marketing strategy:
“They haven’t done much marketing which is where we can help. They are strong technically but don’t like doing marketing, HR etc… now merging with us they don’t have to worry about money.”
Apart from boosting the service’s business development, Binance plans to list Trust Wallet as a default wallet on the highly-anticipated Binance decentralized exchange. Zhao said that Binance is considering further acquisitions:
“We’re looking for strong tech teams. Acquisition will be a very key component to continuing to grow and contributing to this industry.”
Trust Wallet founder Viktor Radchenko lauded the acquisition as an opportunity to return to focusing on developing the app and technology. Radchenko said, “Having resources will help us grow quicker and so I can focus on adoption for the users that don’t even have wallets.”
Trust Wallet had previously announced the registration for its token sale, but subsequently cancelled it, citing lack of regulation in the market, which makes it “challenging to complete [the] vision without some serious sacrifices with safety.”
The company added that the token sale, “force[d] us to focus more on a tokenized economy and less on product development — something that made Trust a great product in the first place.”
Malta-based Binance is the second largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume at press time. Having recorded about $300 million revenue by July, the company is expecting profits to reach $1 billion in 2018.
