Binance Review, Month 38: DeFining The Future

2020-09-17

During Binance’s Month 38 (August 15 to September 15, 2020): We committed to support DeFi through a $100 million accelerator program, following the launch of BNB Smart Chain. Also, we debuted Binance Launchpool and Liquid Swap, while Binance Futures celebrated its first anniversary with a $1.6 million promo. 

The Big Story: Connecting DeFi and CeFi

Between August 15 and September 15, the total market cap for crypto reached a 28-month peak of $393 million on September 2, before falling to $320 million after less than a week and then recovering to $350 million, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin (BTC) price reached as high as $12,000 on September 2, then swooned to $9,900 before recovering to $10,700. 

As decentralized finance (DeFi) continued its rise, Ethereum (ETH) had an up-and-down month, going for as high as $480 and as low as $320 during the above mentioned period. One bright spot this month was BNB, which went from $18 to $33 within just one week, vaulting the token to its all-time high ranking in the crypto charts at No. 5. 

Given Binance’s activities this month, the rise of BNB’s price is not surprising. This month, we have further cemented our commitment to safeguarding the DeFi revolution and enabling more freedom of money around the world with two important events: 

1. We have worked closely with the BNB Chain community and the bigger blockchain industry to finally launch BNB Smart Chain. With this new blockchain that is created to run parallel to BNB Chain, developers can now create smart contracts and DeFi solutions while harnessing the strengths of a fast and cost-effective blockchain. 

2. To further support innovations in DeFi and to drive further collaborations, we created a $100 million accelerator fund for DeFi projects that want to build their solutions on BNB Smart Chain. Together, let’s create more financial solutions that offer people more freedom to earn, access, move, and use their money. Fill up this form to apply for the BNB Smart Chain Accelerator Fund! 

Meanwhile, through the Token Canal project, we’re helping developers to connect the various public chains through BNB Smart Chain, which will effectively become a bridge for all major public blockchains.

This month, we also introduced several services that bring you the experience and opportunities of DeFi, all from the comfort of your Binance account. For instance, we launched Binance Launchpool, a new product where users can acquire new token rewards in return for staking BNB, BUSD, and other tokens. Two projects have launched on Launchpool so far: Bella Protocol and Wing. Learn more about Launchpool here. In addition, we launched Binance BSwap, an automated market maker (AMM) pool product and the first of its kind in a centralized exchange.

Things move so fast in the crypto world that we barely even realized that Binance Futures is already celebrating its first anniversary. Within just 12 months, Binance Futures has risen to become the top derivatives market for crypto in the world, as well as an important part of the Binance ecosystem. Join us in celebrating this milestone with a $1.6 million BNB promo!

Let’s also look into more of the latest updates from the past month. 

In Other News

Week 1 Highlights (full report here)

Binance Dual Savings. Through this new solution from Binance Pool, collect the highest possible earnings from your crypto, no matter where the market goes.

- How Binance Helped Take Down a Cybercriminal Group Laundering $42M. We’re doing our part to contribute to a safer global cryptocurrency ecosystem. Read more about the Bulletproof Exchanger Project in this article.

- Binance Staking Launches DeFi Staking. This allows our users to participate in certain DeFi products through a single click, with the support of our platform.

Week 2 Highlights (full report here)

- Introducing the DeFi Index perpetual contract. This DEFI/USDT contract, featuring up to 50x leverage, represents a composite of decentralized finance protocol tokens listed on Binance. 

- Introducing the CryptoSafe Alliance. We spearheaded a cooperative that aims to strengthen security for everybody’s crypto, by fighting crypto fraud and bad actors within the crypto and blockchain space. 

- Binance P2P adds 58 new payment methods. This brings up the number of total supported payment methods on the peer-to-peer platform to 62, reaching more users around the world with local currency exchange options such as PayPal, SWIFT, Western Union, Yandex Money, SEP, FPS, and more.

Week 3 Highlights (full report here)

- Binance BSwap launches. BSwap is a new trading platform that hosts different pools of liquidity, allowing users to exchange crypto assets and earn from their pooled funds.

- Binance presents the Token Canal project. Project Token Canal is a new initiative where we stand to issue and bind more token assets on BNB Chain and BNB Smart Chain.

- Binance joins Blockchain for Europe. We are now part of the European association representing international blockchain industry participants at the EU-level.

Week 4 Highlights (full report here)

- Highlights from the DeFi Summit. We charted the rise of DeFi, discussed the challenges of bridging DeFi and CeFi, held a workshop teaching users how to earn passive income with decentralized finance, and more. Thanks to everyone who joined!

- Binance TR goes live. We are formally entering the Turkish market, through the launch of Binance TR, which you can access now at trbinance.com.

- Binance buys digital LAND NFTs from The Sandbox. With our purchase of NFTs from the most recent Binance Launchpad project, we are exploring more social gaming experiences for our users. 

- Happy First Birthday, BUSD! On the one-year anniversary of BUSD’s launch, we look back at some of the highlights for our stablecoin and how its role continues to evolve in an ever-changing blockchain world, including its expanding role in DeFi.

- Binance.US opens in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. With these additions, Binance.US is now available in 40 states.  

Exchange Updates

* New spot listings (27): XRPUP, XRPDOWN, DOTUP, DOTDOWN, EOSUP, EOSDOWN, TRXUP, TRXDOWN, UMA, Swerve, Bella Protocol, DIA, Kusama, Elrond Gold, Sushi, DFI.Money, Wrapped BTC, bZx Protocol, IDEX, Reserve Rights, PAX Gold, Wrapped NXM, Tellor, Terra, Polkadot, Numeraire, Ocean Protocol 

* New futures listings (29):

-  Coin-margined perpetual contracts XRPUSD, ETCUSD, LTCUSD, BCHUSD, TRXUSD,  EOSUSD, ADAUSD, BNBUSD, LINKUSD, ETHUSD

- Coin-margined quarterly contracts ADAUSD Quarterly 1225, LINKUSD Quarterly 1225

- USDT-margined perpetual contracts EGLD/USDT, SOL/USDT, ICX/USDT, BTT/USDT, EGLD/USDT, SOL/USDT, - SRM/USDT, BZRX/USDT, RUNE/USDT, SUSHI/USDT, TRB/USDT, YFII/USDT, BAL/USDT, CRV/USDT, YFI/USDT, DEFI/USDT composite index perpetual contract, DOT/USDT.