Regardless of how many new users it might attract, Binance is not interested in offering users the ability to trade stocks. CEO Changpeng Zhao said that cryptocurrency exchanges offering this feature are neither good nor bad, but he pointed out that the stock exchange does not fit his company’s philosophy.
As cryptocurrency companies experience a general market downturn, some have focused on adding users with new features. In May, FTX began offering customers the ability to trade stocks in stablecoin-funded accounts.
“Some exchanges want to return to stock trading“, said CZ in an obvious reference to FTX. “We do not intend to make stock transactions“, said CZ. “We’re not running a tax brokerage store anytime soon“.
And while stock trading has proven to be a lucrative market for many retail investment platforms, such as Robinhood and eToro, CZ said he’d rather see Binance focus on building more Web3 tools.
“We are a purely Web3 company“, said CZ. “We don’t go back, we go forward“.
The CEO added that Binance has its eye on a few companies as potential acquisition targets during the bear market, but none of them would revolve around the traditional stock exchange. CZ also suggested that potential deals would be more “simple” than a complicated loan structure or a bailout.
“This does not mean that complex transactions are bad“, said CZ. “But my preference is always to keep it very simple, very straight forward, to bring it all back to very fundamental basics, and go from there.”
He also commented directly on the $500 million line of credit extended to bankrupt cryptocurrency broker Voyager Digital by Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research: “I would never do that type of deal.”
In May, Bankman-Fried bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, and Bloomberg reported last month that it was interested in buying the stock and crypto trading app outright, but he dismissed the rumour, stating that there were “no active merger and acquisition conversations on Robinhood currently underway.”