The launch of Binance Jersey, which operates as a separate exchange in the Channel Islands, turns Binance from an altcoin arcade into a fully-fledged fiat gateway, letting enthusiasts pay for crypto with both pounds and euros.
The platform was described by Binance's Finance Officer <a href=https://www.binance.com/en/blog/292174235499782144/Binance+Expands+to+European+Markets,+Launches+Binance+Jersey"">Wei Zhou as a way "to help bridge the crypto-fiat channel for Europe and the U.K as part of Binance's global expansion to support broader cryptocurrency adoption," a move he suggests could be of particular importance given "looming Brexit uncertainty" concerning the pound and the euro.
The move into Europe will also set Binance against a host of new crypto-fiat competitors; like the San Francisco-based Coinbase that launched pound sterling support last year after acquiring an e-money license in the U.K and partnering with local bank Barclays for client deposits and withdrawals.
The euro has also been of great interest to Coinbase, who have opened a Dublin office as a way to both insure against potential brexit fallout, and capitalize on a market that it claims has brought them more customers than any other during 2017.
But despite the supposed demand, euro trading volume remains relatively low. Of the top five euro exchanges by daily traded bitcoin volume: Bitfinex, Kraken, Coinbase Pro, Bitstamp and Exmo, only Kraken's euro traded volume is higher than the equivalent dollar traded volume, with the majority of crypto exchanges showing significantly higher volume traded in dollars — from $28 million USD on European exchange Bitstamp, to 8 million Euro, and $40 million USD to 5 million euro on the Bitfinex exchange.
Overall, data from Coinhills shows that the percentage of bitcoin traded in the Euro is a minuscule 1.84 percent; significantly lower than the dollar and the yen at 47 and 45 percent respectively, and slightly lower than the Korean won's 3.3 percent of global volume.
The backdoor to Europe
As risk-averse jurisdictions like the UK and US slow crawl through the legislative process, smaller jurisdictions like Jersey, Liechtenstein and Malta are shooting ahead, hoping that crypto could put them at the centre of a new economic renaissance.
With crypto-friendly legislation, these smaller, more nimble jurisdictions are helping to plug the gaps between crypto and the legacy financial system. As a leading offshore financial centre for corporate banking, Jersey, in particular, represents a convenient "backdoor" for Binance to enter Europe by sidestepping the slow lawmakers: "Binance selected Jersey for its highly developed digital infrastructure, robust regulatory framework, and world-class financial services sector," said Binance's Zhou..
The channel island, known more for cows than cryptocurrency, first flirted with bitcoin back in 2014, announcing its intention to approve a regulated Bitcoin fund as part of an initiative by the Jersey Financial Services Commission to attract cryptocurrency companies to the island.
Then, after the launch of Binance's first fiat pairing with Binance Uganda in the spring of 2018, the exchange signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the organisation Digital Jersey, aiming to create a "permissive sandbox for innovative crypto businesses".
"Jersey has in place an existing legal and regulatory framework for cryptocurrency into which Binance Jersey easily fits," said Zhou. "Jersey is an undisputed pioneer in blockchain development leveraged by this strong framework and talent pool. Binance Jersey hopes to increase Jersey's competitive advantage in banking from other jurisdictions competing for cryptocurrency-related business as the island's cryptocurrency regulation allows."
According to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao's twitter feed, enthusiasm has been high for Binance Jersey.
With Ugandan shillings, British pounds and euros under its belt, Binance is next expected to open a fiat exchange desk in Singapore, where the exchange will be hoping to replicate the success it has had so far in Jersey.