Binance Makes First Chinese Investment Since Leaving Country in 2017

Published at: Sept. 17, 2019

Crypto exchange giant Binance has made its first strategic Chinese investment after leaving China amid the local crypto trading ban back in 2017.

Founded in China in 2017, Binance has participated in a $200 million funding round of Beijing-based Mars Finance, a local crypto and blockchain publication, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 17.

Binance invests in crypto media

According to the report, investors also included Singapore-based Matrixport, recently founded by former CEO of Bitmain, and Beijing-based venture capital (VC) firm Ceyuan Ventures.

Following the news, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted to confirm the news, expressing the company’s willingness to support the industry. He wrote:

“Let's make more news, and less FUD. Invest in the industry.”

Previous investors: OKCoin and Huobi 

Mars Finance was established by local entrepreneur Wang Feng in February 2018. According to Bloomberg, the firm previously completed two funding rounds with investors including leading crypto exchanges OKCoin and Huobi, and major American VC firm IDG Capital.

At press time, the Chinese version of Mars Finance, with the domain huoxing24.com, has around 124,000 monthly visits, with a 70,947 rank in China, according to website traffic tool SimilarWeb. The English-language version of the website, however, appears to be relatively inactive since early January 2019.

While China has been remaining negative to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), the People’s Bank of China is reportedly gearing up for its own central bank digital currency (CBDC). 

The bank is working on the project with online retail giant Alibaba, Internet giant Tencent, five banking organizations and one unknown entity, according to an unconfirmed report in August. 

On Sept. 9, Circle CEO said that no one in the world is closer to launching CBDCs than China.

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