The World Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange by volume, Binance, announced yesterday its strategic investment in the crypto derivatives exchange FTX.

According to an official blog post by Binance. It has invested an undisclosed amount in the fast-rising crypto derivative platform FTX, Binance has taken a long-term position in the FTX Token, while the derivatives exchange returns the favor by helping to build out the liquidity and institutional product offerings.

Binance’s CEO, CZ said that he believes this partnership will help both companies and that FTX is on its way to becoming a larger player in the cryptocurrency derivatives market:

The FTX team has built an innovative crypto trading platform with stunning growth. With their backgrounds as professional traders, we see quite a bit ourselves in the FTX team and believe in their potential in becoming a major player in the crypto derivatives markets. We are pleased to have an excellent partner joining the Binance ecosystem and aim to grow the crypto market together. – Said CZ.

 FTX Founded in 2019, By Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX is the brainchild of Alameda Research, a digital asset research firm. Situated in the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda, FTX provides four different types of trading. futures ,OTC, spot trading, indexes and . According to reports, the exchange has a daily trade volume of about $1.5 billion.

The firm will help in creating products, especially for Binance.com, also developing Binance over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk.

As a result of this partnership, FTX is sure to enjoy a boost in growth and also widespread adoption. Though Binance only made a minor investment on FTX, it, however, has a long term hold on its native token FTT.

CZ also praised the unique talent and professionalism of the FTX expert team of traders. The exchange is more than confident that it is on the right path.

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According to a press release, the partnership is expected to boost bitcoin adoption, bringing the cryptocurrency to the masses. Binance users via Paxful platform will be able to buy bitcoin with about 10 different fiat currency. Currencies like the Russian Ruble (RUB), the Vietnamese Dong (VND), the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR), the Nigerian Naira (NGN), etc

Alongside its recent inclusion of Paxful, Binance already has several other fiat gateway partners. They include Simplex, Paxos, Trust Token Flutterwave, and Advcash  These partners support bitcoin purchases with fiat on Binance. Binance’s partnership with Paxful stands out because the P2P platform already supports hundreds of payment methods.

COO of Paxful, Artur Schaback, pointed out that the partnership will provide financial services especially for the unbanked. Also adding that: “Unlike other payment gateways, Paxful supports more than 300 payment methods including local currency bank transfers, gift cards, and online wallets. […]This gives an opportunity for the unbanked and underbanked to be part of a new ecosystem.”

Using Nigeria as a case study, Schaback pointed out several restrictive rules guiding the Nigerian banking sector. With Paxful, Nigerians will be able to purchase bitcoin with gift cards to fund their Binance wallet.

Mass adoption for Bitcoin

Paxful claims to currently have 167 fiat currencies on its platform. While the partnership provides only 10 fiat currencies options, the two companies promise to add support for more fiat “in the near future”.  

CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), described the partnership as a  “significant” one. This is because it will open up cryptocurrency to a new set of users. Including “local currency bank transfers and some of the world’s most popular digital wallets.”

Paxful, however only supports bitcoin. This is because the platform believes that “there should only be one cryptocurrency to make the financial revolution happen.”

CEO of Paxful, Ray Youssef told reporters that, “Paxful is proud to be partnering with Binance”. Also adding that, “They share our passion and vision for the global crypto economy and we’re excited to see how this union will spur more financial access, for people everywhere.”

Looking out for the unbanked

According to reports, we currently have approximately 2 billion people with no access to banking services. A huge portion of these persons resides in developing countries. The new partnership with Paxful aims to bring cheap and accessible banking services to unbanked all over the world. Ultimately, it will bring Bitcoin to people in about 167 countries. And in the long-run improve the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies worldwide.

That said, just last month, Paxful recorded about $30 million in P2P bitcoin trades while over the last one year, the platform also added more than 800,000 wallets.