Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance Acquires Trust Wallet, mobile crypto wallet, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, made its first public acquisition and bought third-party company Trust Wallet, intending to provide its customers more control over their assets.
Launched in 2017, Trust Wallet is U.S company which developed an open source, anonymous, and decentralized wallet that supports Ethereum and over 20,000 different token based on Ethereum blockchain. As Binance said to TechCrunch, they have paid for the deal fiat money, BNB tokens and Binance stocks.
“The users control 100 percent of their funds,” Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng said in an interview with Bloomberg. “Now we have both a decentralized and centralized solution for custody.”
As Binance explained, Trust Wallet does not have access to user wallets and their private keys. According to the information on the official website of Trust Wallet, the company can collect public keys of users, their contact information and data from social networks. In June, Trust Wallet reported that it was canceling the planned sale of tokens, citing lack of regulation in the cryptocurrency market and legal risks.
“The company has built a reputation for security and has held itself to the guiding principles that it will never access user wallets, hold private keys, and ask for personal information,” Binance said in statement. “The Trust Wallet brand and team will retain the autonomy and freedom to develop the core product while benefiting from the increased synergy from Binance.”
Despite the fact that Binance acquires Trust Wallet, team of Trust Wallet will go on operating autonomously. Binance will just assist with management and work on marketing development.
According to Zhao, the acquisition cost a relatively small amount, and not so many people use Trust Wallet. He also noted that currently Binance is negotiating regarding the acquisition of several more companies.
