The crypto exchange was reportedly looking to use the additional funding to regain market share following Binance’s 2023 settlement with US authorities. Binance.US is reportedly seeking to raise up to $100 million in a funding round that could value the cryptocurrency exchange at $1 billion. According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, the US-based crypto exchange is pursuing private investment as it looks to expand its business. The potential $1 billion valuation would be well below the $4.5 billion pre-money valuation it secured in 2022, when it raised $200 million in seed funding. Binance.US reportedly informed World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform co-founded by US President Donald Trump and his sons, about the funding round, but the company will not be participating. Last year, Binance was embroiled in a controversial $2 billion investment between an entity tied to the United Arab Emirates royalty and World Liberty using the platform’s USD1 stablecoin. Read more
Binance will discontinue its mining pool and related services on Nov. 10, urging miners to move to alternative pools before the shutdown. Crypto exchange Binance is shutting down its mining pool and related services in November, ending an operation that has been running for over six years. On Tuesday, Binance said it would discontinue Binance Pool on Nov. 10. The shutdown also covers Pool Savings, Cloud Mining, Transaction Accelerator and related features, including mining pool APIs and hashrate notifications. After the deadline, Binance said it would disable its mining endpoints and disconnect miners from the pool. The exchange will no longer accept hashrate submissions or credit mining shares received after the cutoff. Affected products will stop generating rewards and yields. Read more
Binance BTC reserves fell by nearly 40,000 coins since Sept. 20 as whales returned stablecoin capital to their exchange wallets. Bitcoin (BTC) outflows from largest crypto exchange Binance set multiyear records in late September, new analysis reveals. Key points: Read more
EU regulators are reportedly examining Binance’s use of a MiCA exemption to serve customers as ESMA seeks stronger enforcement powers. European regulators are reportedly scrutinizing Binance’s use of a legal exemption to continue serving customers in the European Union without authorization under the bloc’s crypto rules. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and regulators in France, Germany and Greece are examining Binance’s use of reverse solicitation under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Binance withdrew its Greek MiCA application in June and said it would seek authorization in another EU member state. Read more
Binance Pay will let overseas users spend USDT at most PayPay-supported merchants in Japan through HIVEX, while stores receive yen. Binance Pay will allow eligible overseas users visiting Japan to spend Tether USDt (USDT) at the vast majority of PayPay-supported merchants starting Wednesday. The service will run through HIVEX, a payment interoperability framework that connects overseas QR payment services to PayPay-supported merchants in Japan. Merchants will continue receiving settlement in yen. Binance told Cointelegraph it is the first crypto payment service to access PayPay-supported merchants through HIVEX. Merchants will not need to opt in separately, it said. Read more
Rachel Conlan will oversee institutional partnerships and ecosystem growth, while Jamal Raees will focus on stablecoins and tokenized deposits, following a wave of new partnerships. Solana Foundation has appointed former Binance chief marketing officer Rachel Conlan as chief strategy officer and former Polygon Labs executive Jamal Raees as general manager of payments. Conlan will lead strategy across institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth and efforts to bring businesses onto Solana, the foundation said Thursday. She spent three years at Binance and previously held senior roles at OKX, CAA Sports and Havas. Raees said he would deepen the foundation’s engagement with major payments companies and focus on infrastructure used by teams building payment services on Solana. Read more
Circle sold Binance $100 million in stock and agreed to pay monthly incentives under an expanded five-year partnership promoting USDC. Binance has invested $100 million in stablecoin issuer Circle as part of an expanded five-year agreement to promote USDC on the crypto exchange. Circle issued Binance 1,237,011 shares of its Class A common stock at $80.84 per share in a private placement on Sept. 17, according to a Tuesday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The purchase price reflected a discount to Circle’s market price before the transaction closed. New York Stock Exchange-traded CRCL shares were up more than 1.3% in Tuesday’s premarket activity after closing Monday at $94.29 apiece, according to Yahoo Finance data. Read more