Binance Debuts Service for ‘Affluent’ TradFi Crypto Investors

Binance has launched a service to help affluent traditional finance investors enter the cryptocurrency space.

Binance Prestige, announced by the crypto exchange Wednesday (Nov. 26), is designed to cover things like onboarding, fiat services, financing for traditional finance (TradFi) investors.

“Crypto remains a relatively new asset class, and many TradFi affluent investors are unsure about how to proceed after deciding to allocate capital,” the company said in a news release.

“These investors require tailored solutions to navigate and guide them through the unique complexities of crypto effectively. Binance Prestige fills this gap by providing comprehensive, step-by-step support aligned with the rigorous compliance and operational standards expected by this growing market segment.”

The launch of Binance Prestige comes a little more than a year after Binance debuted Binance Wealth, billed as the first crypto exchange technology solution for wealth managers who serve as intermediaries to oversee their clients exposure to crypto assets.

Catherine Chen, head of VIP and institutional at Binance, said that platform’s ability to meet the needs of the wealth segment validates the company’s specialized services.

“As more affluent individuals and professional asset managers increasingly embrace digital assets, we saw an opportunity to deliver an even more bespoke solution tailored to the needs of this growing market segment,” Chen said. “Binance Prestige addresses the friction encountered by TradFi sophisticated clients after they have made the strategic decision to allocate to crypto and our global team experienced in institutional asset management supports them through every step of their investing journey.”

In other crypto news, PYMTS wrote earlier this week about the regulatory limits to crypto payments. Current IRS regulations mandate that spending crypto such as bitcoin is legally identical to disposing of an investment. That means each payment is a taxable event, requiring documentation and carrying the potential for capital gains liability.

“When you pay with bitcoin, it’s treated as like selling a stock or an investment,” Janessa Lopez, head of Digital Assets Policy at Block, told PYMNTS in an interview posted Nov. 18. “You’re hit with a capital gains tax and a tax form, which makes using Bitcoin to pay for things like coffee or dinner really difficult and burdensome.”

This makes crypto payments uniquely unsuited to the type of low-value, high-frequency transactions at the center of this week’s Black Friday sales.

The friction isn’t part of the checkout process, but rather is found in the post-purchase paperwork. It’s why Block introduced “Bitcoin is Everyday Money,” a campaign lobbying for a de minimis tax exemption to modernize how American tax law treats bitcoin.