Binance Exchange moves to Malta, Europe 🏝️ Has fiat-to-crypto exchange plans 💱

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, has announced plans to open up an office in the small mediterranean island-nation of Malta in Europe in order to start a fiat-to-crypto exchange.

MALTA

Binance, originally founded as a Chinese cryptocurrency exchange, has been plagued by strict regulations and has had difficulties finding a permanent base for it's operations. When China clamped down with regulations, the half-year-old-or-so cryptocurrency exchange has had to move it's operations to Hong Kong to stay compliant.

Now that the Hong Kong authorities are also tightening regulations and applying pressure on Binance, it is looking for alternative nations to open up offices in. Today Binance's CEO has announced that Binance is in talks and very close to securing a deal with local Maltese banks, in order to be able to start a true fiat-to-crypto exchange. This is revolutionary for Binance in the sense that right now they are only a crypto-to-crypto exchange.

The choice of Malta is a smart one: Malta is an EU member and it is currently trying it's utmost best to transform the country into a hub for digital asset ventures. Besides being fintech friendly, Malta is also known for it's beautiful scenery and weather and friendly population.

In response to the news and talks, the Maltese prime minister tweeted "Welcome to #Malta @binance, we aim to be the global trailblazers in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses."

(source: Twitter)

POSITIVE

I consider this to be very positive news for Binance and crypto overall. Malta is indeed a very strategic choice, as the small nation offers a lot of the benefits of being an EU member, but it's also small and flexible enough to offer many benefits to Binance. In fact, I imagine Binance might instantly become responsible for a fair deal of this small nation's GDP, making it a very mutually beneficial relationship.

I also think basing Binance in the EU is a master-stroke: The regulatory stance of the EU has overall been very lenient and less knee-jerk-reaction based than many other countries. Even the USA seems like a risky place to base a cryptocurrency business in.

For users of the platform I think this is beneficial too. I like Binance but have always had concerns with them being based in Hong Kong. If Binance moves to Malta and thus the EU, it becomes obliged to be regulatory compliant with EU regulations including the ones for consumer protection. It simply increases my trust in the platform by a significant amount and decreases my fears that at some point China might march in and influence the exchange.

The creation of a fiat-to-crypto exchange is a big deal too. Through this Binance instantly competes with the likes of Coinbase, with the big difference being that Binance has so many more crypto's. Coinbase better hurry up with adding altcoins, or else Binance might in fact steal their thunder away like it did with Bittrex (once considered the top-dog and near-unbeatable). For altcoins this is significant too: it means for the first time many coins can be directly purchased with fiat - instead of having to buy Bitcoin first.

(Art by Roy Lichtenstein)