By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange based on volume, has made its first public acquisition, having bought a decentralized Trust Wallet that supports Ethereum and Ethereum-based tokens.
Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of mobile wallet solution Trust Wallet with the aim “to provide a better service” and “to enhance the safety” for all of its users.
#Binance Acquires Trust Wallet – A Popular Mobile Crypto Wallethttps://t.co/2yY35u7AAb pic.twitter.com/L4ktVm6YCn
— Binance (@binance) July 31, 2018
Trust Wallet is a decentralized wallet service for digital tokens that also serves as a browser for so-called decentralized applications. Trust Wallet allows users to hold Ethereum, and over 20,000 different Ethereum based tokens. Launched in November 2017 by Viktor Radchenko, the company has already built a reputation for security preserving the guiding principles of never accessing user wallets, holding private keys, and asking for personal information.
Trust Wallet is not as famous as Imtoken, Delta, or Blockfolio wallets, however, the deal is very important for Binance, as it is the company’s first acquisition. The exchange expects $1 billion of profit this year, and is going to stay strong in the pursuit of its goals.
Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng admires the Trust Wallet team’s engineering skills:
“We’re looking for strong tech teams. Acquisition will be a very key component to continuing to grow and contributing to this industry.”
According to Changpeng, the acquisition is a way for Binance to offer its customers a decentralized way to store their cryptocurrency.
He also said Trust Wallet would continue to operate as its own brand and that Binance would let the team operate with considerable independence:
“The users control 100 percent of their funds. Now we have both a decentralized and centralized solution for custody.”
Zhao also noted that Binance had previously considered buying companies to accelerate the development of its decentralized exchange, but it wasn’t able to identify the right match:
“Our requirements are very specific, we are looking for speed, there’s no need for fancy smart contracts. We didn’t find the right match for an acquisition [but are] still very open to someone who makes an ultra-fast blockchain.”
However, Binance CEO hasn’t disclose the financial details of the deal.
The team behind the exchange is excited about the deal with Trust Wallet:
“The company has built a reputation for security and has held itself to the guiding principles that it will never access user wallets, hold private keys, and ask for personal information. The Trust Wallet brand and team will retain the autonomy and freedom to develop the core product while benefiting from the increased synergy from Binance.”
Trust Wallet Founder Viktor Radchenko said he was looking forward to collaborating with Binance as well:
“This is an incredible opportunity for Trust Wallet to work with the biggest and the most respected exchange in the world, but we also feel as though we are aligning with a partner that shares a similar approach towards security and user management.”
As the announcement reads, Binance’s acquisition of Trust Wallet shows the importance of secure wallet technology for the future development of cryptocurrency as a whole. “As Binance’s first public acquisition, we hope to continue providing our users with improved security, services and support,” the exchange stated.