Binance Announces its Acquisition of Trust Wallet

Binance, the fastest growing international exchange for trading cryptocurrencies, has announced its acquisition of Trust Wallet on Tuesday, 31st July. Through this purchase, Binance aims to provide “a better service and to enhance the safety for all users.”

Trust Wallet is a secure, open source, decentralized, anonymous mobile wallet application which is compatible with Ethereum-based tokens, and is capable of storing more than 20,000 crypto assets. It has seen significant user adoption since its launch in November 2017 and now has 10 employees.

Binance was attracted to the California-based start-up’s reputation for unsurpassed security. Unlike other mobile-based wallets, Trust Wallet allows users to “control 100 percent of their funds” and its guiding principles include never accessing user wallets, holding private keys or asking for personal information.

In fact, all of the information that will be stored on company-owned servers is just the user’s public addresses, contact details and social media handles. Its first public acquisition, the move will enable Binance to add an on-chain mobile wallet to the list of its services with other future integration possibilities.

Trust Wallet will remain an independent brand and its team pledges to continue operating autonomously with plans to develop the core product while benefiting from Binance’s broad user base and marketing expertise, not to mention the upcoming decentralised exchange, Binance Chain.

Binance’s Chief Executive Officer, Changpeng Zhao, stated:

” Wallets are the most fundamental interface to the crypto economy, and a secure and easy-to-use wallet is key to proliferate the adoption of cryptocurrencies.”

Trust Wallet founder Viktor Radchenko claims the acquisition will give his business an opportunity to return to developing the app and technology, as well as focusing on adoption for users who don’t yet have wallets. He said:

” 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.”

Radchenko established Trust Wallet initially because app stores did not have any open source wallets for Ethereum and ERC20 tokens. He revealed:

“Our focus has always been on building better interface for storing and accessing funds, as well as laying the infrastructure for other developers to build apps. Trust Wallet is an on-chain wallet, where user private keys are decentralized, ie, stored on user devices. This compliments the centralized architecture of Binance nicely.”

Details of the deal have been kept under wraps, but it is believed to be a mixture of cash, Binance stock and a portion of its BNB token. The purchase of Trust Wallet comes after a highly successful year for Binance during which it became the world’s biggest exchange. Binance was launched in 2017 and grew to become the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in just six months - valuated at a cool $3 billion by Bloomberg in April. It is the first of many acquisitions for Binance which is continuing to expand its Malta-based empire and is reportedly prospecting for several more strategic partnerships.

By Joy Lewis.