Binance’s Blockchain Network Likely to Go Live Today, DEX Launch Could Be Next

In the latest Tweet, Binance hints at launching its native blockchain network, Binance Chain, today, April 18th. This, together with the announcement of company’s DEX exchange (which is likely to be made asap), pushed Binance Coin price past $20 level.

A recent Tweet coming from Binance’s official account indicates that the crypto exchange could launch its native blockchain network today. Binance wrote: “Today marks the birth of a new genesis block”.

Today marks the birth of a new genesis block. Who's ready? pic.twitter.com/AF1hVtFXzt — Binance (@binance) April 18, 2019

According to the definition, “the genesis block is the first ever block recorded on its respective blockchain network, also occasionally referred to as Block 0 or Block 1”. In a blockchain network, every block broadcasted has a reference to its previous network. However, the genesis block doesn’t have any such reference. In fact, genesis blocks are hardcoded into the blockchain software.

The Binance announcement makes it clear that the exchange could be launching its most awaited native blockchain network, the Binance Chain. The Binance Chain aims to facilitate faster token issuance and simple asset transfer. Furthermore, it also houses Binance’s decentralized exchange along with the Binance Coin (BNB).

It is very likely that Binance will announce its decentralized exchange (DEX) as early as possible. The public testing for Binance DEX has already started in February 2019.

Binance Chain is custom-built for DEXs with one-second block times coupled with a large transactional capacity. As explained by Zhao:

“With the core Binance Chain technology, Binance DEX can handle the same trading volume as Binance.com is handling today. This solves the issues many other decentralized exchanges face with speed and power.”

Binance’s Fiat-to-Crypto Singapore Exchange Launching Next Week

Apart from its native blockchain network, Binance is also preparing to launch fiat-to-crypto on-ramp crypto platform, next week in Singapore. Speaking to CoinDesk at the Paris Blockchain Week, Binance CFO Wei Zhou said:

“Next week we are going to launch the Singapore simple buy/sell on-ramp. It will actually be a new product we are launching, as a very easy buy/sell platform so users in Singapore can buy and sell bitcoin with Singapore dollars.”

Zhou further added that initially, “it will just be bitcoin, but we hope to add more [cryptocurrencies]. For a lot of these regulated jurisdictions, it’s easy to start with things that people know and understand and you can gradually build on that.”

Earlier operating as an only crypto-to-crypto exchange, Binance opened the gateways of fiat-to-crypto services this year in January. The exchange has partnered with Simplex allowing traders to use MasterCard and Visa to make crypto purchases.

Zhou also spoke on the matter of crypto market participation by institutional investors. He noted that Binance has 40 to 50 percent rise in institutional trading in the last six months.

Zhou also notes that a majority of the institutional traders are leveraging Binance’s application programming interface (API). Instead of working as a traditional hedge fund, these players operate in “highly nimble, highly algorithm-driven and highly efficient” manner. Zhou added:

“I think right now, all the world is focused on what they call ‘old money’ – which is great, but I think the style of a lot of these institutions just don’t move at crypto speed.”

Following this new, the Binance Coin (BNB) is witnessing a high trading activity. At the press time, BNB is trading at $20.64 with a 5% rise in the last 24 hours. BNB is currently the seventh most-valuable cryptocurrency in the market.