Binance.US to raise decent funding in two months as it eyes IPO
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the American outpost of the world’s biggest crypto exchange may raise a “couple hundred million” dollars in a funding round, but he does not know the exact number.
Speaking on the last day of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, CZ said that Binance.US is set to bag the fresh capital in the next couple of months. “I think that’ll come in about a month or two,” he said in Singapore on Friday.
The news comes a few days after cryptocurrency platform Gemini, founded by the Winklevoss twins, raised $400 million at a $7.1 billion valuation. New York-based Gemini’s first ever round of outside financing was led by Morgan Creek Digital, with participation from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and others.
Earlier in September, Zhao told tech publication The Information that depending on business growth, Binance.US is eyeing a potential IPO route to go public within three years.
CZ told the outlet that Coinbase, which became the first crypto exchange to go public, helped set up a playbook for crypto firms to do IPOs.
Although the company generated $800 million–$1 billion in profit last year, Binance.US is looking at a proper way to get VC money. Namely, CZ expects the US affiliate to close a large private funding round within the next two months in a bid to reduce its dependence on the global parent entity.
Binance has launched its operations in the US market in late 2019 via a partnership with a FinCEN-registered company, BAM Trading Services. The exchange has licensed its matching engine and wallet technologies to its US partner, which handles operations in compliance according to local regulations.
This isn’t the first time Zhao has said that Coinbase’s IPO essentially laid out the blueprint for other crypto players to copy. Speaking at the blockchain virtual summit REDeFiNE Tomorrow 2021, the CEO said in July that Brian Armstrong’s rival exchange had given a clear path, and that Binance would aim to follow in its footsteps.
CZ also revealed that he expects Binance to face heavy scrutiny in the future as the influential exchange is shifting from a tech startup to a financial service group. He even raised the prospect of stepping down and confirmed that Binance was on the lookout for global executives with a strong regulatory background to help them pivot towards becoming a regulated financial institution.
