Binance Jumps Into Payments Processing, Eyes Web3

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has launched its own payments technology firm.

Binance’s new payments firm, Bifinity, will work with payments processor Checkout.com to provide fiat currency on- and off-ramps for users of cryptocurrency exchanges, enabling them to use digital assets for retail purchases.

It will, the company hopes, “empower businesses to adopt crypto and reach new audiences with easy, direct fiat-to-crypto transactions.”

Bifinity promises intuitive merchant application programming interfaces (APIs) and low payments processing fees, as well as a user-friendly front-end for crypto buying and selling entry points. It will work with other exchanges as well, notably Singapore-based EQONEX, a Nasdaq-listed exchange and digital financial-services firm.

“With the launch of Bifinity, we aim to accelerate mass crypto adoption,” said Helen Hai, president of Bifinity, in a statement. “We see greater demand to build improved fiat-to-crypto on-ramps to bridge the gap between the traditional finance industry and the decentralized and centralized crypto economy.”

While the announcement marks the formal launch of Bifinity, it has been in silent mode since November, supplying those services to Binance.

Deeper and Broader

A partnership with Paysafe provides “a deep regulatory know-how of fiat-to-crypto payments and an embedded finance solution that acts as a white label digital wallet,” the company said.

Binance also plans to use its partnership to enhance fraud detection — an issue cryptocurrency will have to address more effectively if it is to become the mainstream payments mechanism it aspires to. The problem is that blockchain-based crypto payments are immutable — unchangeable — and irreversible without taking the transaction through a trusted third-party, which is the very thing Bitcoin was intended to eliminate.

The company also plans to expand beyond Checkout.com’s European base using Paysafe’s card processing services there, as well as bank-transfer capability, while also expanding into Latin America using its real-time payments service there in coming months.

“We expect global eCommerce to continue outpacing the growth of traditional commerce — especially with the adoption of cryptocurrencies,” said Max Rothman, Checkout.com’s vice president of crypto.

Bifinity supports more than 50 cryptocurrencies and will, through the Checkout.com partnership, accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, as well as Diner’s Club International, Maestro and JCB. Digital wallets Google Pay, Apple Pay and Visa Checkout are also supported.

Beyond Payments

Binance has grand visions for Bifinity beyond payments processing, and even beyond the goal of making crypto-based payments the norm rather than the rare exception it is today. Bifinity’s “vision is to increase the freedom of money globally.”

It pitched the Bifinity launch as part of a broader “Web3 economy” push. That refers to a project popular in cryptocurrency circles to create a decentralized, blockchain-based third-generation internet that will prioritize individual privacy and control of personal data. The goal is to make a way to break the control tech giants have over the internet and information economy.

See also: Web3: Is There Any ‘There’ There? And if so, Where Is It?

That’s something Rothman also pointed to, saying, “We are lowering the barrier to entry for merchants to accept and make their first cryptocurrency transactions, enabling them to seize the great Web3 opportunity that lies ahead.”