Binance to focus on crypto payments with new subsidiary Bifinity

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes, is moving to boost its fiat-to-crypto payments technology by launching its own crypto payment provider.

The crypto exchange officially announced on Monday the launch of Bifinity, Binance’s official fiat-to-crypto payment company, to connect crypto service providers with the traditional financial system.

Bifinity supports more than 50 cryptocurrencies, including major coins like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as well as popular payment platforms like Visa, Mastercard and others.

The new crypto payment platform specifically allows merchants and businesses to adopt and provide crypto services to their customers via offering buy-and-sell crypto services as well as API crypto payments integrations.

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As part of its initial push to bridge the gap between the crypto industry and traditional finance, Bifinity has partnered with several crypto firms, including Eqonex, a Nasdaq-listed digital asset investment firm.

Bifinity entered a strategic partnership with Eqonex to provide a $36 million convertible loan to jointly expand the companies' products, including Eqonex’s crypto custody solution Digivault, according to a separate announcement by Eqonex. Bifinity will also have the right to appoint the CEO, the chief financial officer and the chief legal officer of Eqonex as well as nominate two seats on Eqonex’s Board of Directors — all from within its company. Eqonex is known for offering Bitcoin investment products like BTC futures.

“This transaction marks the next logical step in our company’s evolution, representing an important opportunity to grow our footprint and expand our regulated offerings for the benefit of our customers and shareholders,” Eqonex chairman Chi-Won Yoon said.

Apart from Eqonex, Bifinity will partner with major crypto wallet providers and blockchain platforms, including Safepal and Ziliqa, to offer fiat on- and off-ramp solutions to their clients. Additionally, Bifinity is partnering with specialized payments platform Paysafe and global payments processor Checkout.com.

Bifinity president Helen Hai said that the demand to provide new fiat-to-crypto on-ramps has been rising as the “crypto and the Web3 economy continue to grow.” “At Binance, the vision is to increase the freedom of money globally. With the launch of Bifinity, we aim to accelerate mass crypto adoption,” she noted.

Hai has held multiple positions at Binance so far, including Binance’s head of the nonfungible token and fan token division as well as head of the global fiat exchange. At the time of writing, her LinkedIn profile also shows that she’s currently head of the Binance charity foundation and interim head of mergers and acquisitions.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Binance has been actively expanding its fiat-to-crypto gateways and payment solutions in recent years. In late 2021, Binance finalized the acquisition of payment firm Swipe after initially taking a majority stake in the firm in July 2020.

All Binance’s fiat-to-crypto transactions and on-ramps are now “powered and consolidated via Bifinity,” a spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph.

Bifinity is registered in Lithuania, but is aiming to open its services globally, except for the United States, Netherlands and sanctioned countries, the representative said. The spokesperson added that Bifinity currently operates in the European Economic Area area and in the United Kingdom.

Related: eBay to add crypto payment options soon, says CEO

Starting Wednesday, Binance will suspend all transactions initiated with Mastercard and Visa cards issued in Russia. The suspension comes shortly after Visa and Mastercard announced termination of all services in the country in the aftermath of "Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine."

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stressed that Binance's suspension of Mastercard and Visa transactions wasn't the company's decision.