Binance and CoinMarketCap Announce Acquisition to Collectively Make Cryptocurrency More Accessible for Everyone

Key points:

– Binance announced on April 2, 2020 that it has reached an agreement to acquire CoinMarketCap. Together, they will pursue their common vision of making cryptoassets more accessible and useful to users around the world.

– CoinMarketCap will continue to be run as an independent entity.
(View our latest disclosure policy)

– Brandon Chez, the founder of CoinMarketCap, will be stepping down to focus on his family. He will be passing the baton to Carylyne Chan, former Chief Strategy Officer, who is now the interim CEO.
(Read their letters addressed to our users!)

The global blockchain company behind the world’s largest digital asset exchange by trading volume and users, Binance, today announced that it has acquired CoinMarketCap, the world’s most-referenced cryptoasset data tracking site, for an undisclosed sum. Binance and CoinMarketCap will together pursue their common vision of making cryptoassets more widely accessible and useful to users globally. 

CoinMarketCap will continue to be run as an independent business entity. While the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and its native token BNB are listed on CoinMarketCap, CoinMarketCap and Binance are separate entities that maintain a strict policy of independence from one another: Binance has no bearing on CoinMarketCap rankings, while CoinMarketCap has no influence over Binance’s operations. CoinMarketCap stays committed to providing the most accurate, timely and quality cryptocurrency data in the industry while benefiting from Binance’s expertise, resources and scale.

“The core DNA of CoinMarketCap is strongly aligned with Binance’s ethics and culture, from its integrity to its value of freedom, transparency and user-focus. Our common vision will be strengthened by this acquisition to further growth and instill transparency in the industry. This will enable us to build on each other’s strengths, jointly serving as infrastructure providers of crypto.”

Changpeng (CZ) Zhao, Binance CEO

Binance is widely recognized as the largest cryptocurrency exchange worldwide, providing the best liquidity, transaction execution and price discovery for the largest selection of cryptocurrencies. Binance is trusted in the industry for abiding by the ethos of cryptocurrency, doing right by its users, setting industry standards for transparency and spreading the freedom of money.

CoinMarketCap is known as the most-trafficked website to obtain cryptoasset and exchange information and rankings. It is one of the most-cited sources for cryptoasset prices and exchange trading volume, and has maintained independence from external stakeholders since inception.

CoinMarketCap pledges to continue providing the highest level of information integrity by ensuring data accuracy and improving its ranking methodologies. To enrich the decision-making process of its users, the company recently launched a new Liquidity Metric and added derivative market data, new rating metrics and analytics from trusted partners. CoinMarketCap intends to expand its information offerings to include trading products such as futures, options, lending and more value-added data analytics and tools.

As part of the transition, Brandon Chez, the founder of CoinMarketCap, will be stepping down as CEO and will be replaced by Carylyne Chan, the current Chief Strategy Officer, as interim CEO. Chez is planning to focus on his family after seven years of running the company and will remain as an advisor to CoinMarketCap.

“I believe that of all the teams in the space that could acquire CoinMarketCap, Binance is one of the very best options. They are a team that have shown, time and again, that they care about their users and will do the best for them, even in the most challenging of times. This spirit will continue to be echoed in our own user-focused philosophy at CoinMarketCap, and I am thrilled to be passing the baton on to Carylyne and the CoinMarketCap team to continue fulfilling my original vision of showcasing the crypto revolution.”

Brandon Chez, founder of CoinMarketCap

“I am optimistic about this new phase of growth for CoinMarketCap. Ever since our humble beginnings in 2013, we have been public about our commitment to remaining neutral by avoiding censorship and judgement of projects or exchanges that we list, preferring to let users make their own decisions based on the data. We are delighted that the Binance team has been unequivocal in ensuring that we can continue to adhere to our methodology without prejudice.”

Carylyne Chan, interim CEO of CoinMarketCap

Chan added, “CoinMarketCap will continue to expand on our mission of making crypto as an industry and asset class more discoverable and efficient, and I am certain many of our users will love the new products and changes we plan to launch at CoinMarketCap in 2020.”

“For many, CoinMarketCap is the landing page of our industry and like Binance, has built its community around user trust. We plan to empower CoinMarketCap to continue to build innovative, useful products for its users and the global community,” said CZ.

For more information about CoinMarketCap and our latest disclosure policy, view more here.

Brandon and Carylyne have each penned a letter to our users to share their personal thoughts about the acquisition and CoinMarketCap’s future plans. Read them here!

The post Binance and CoinMarketCap Announce Acquisition to Collectively Make Cryptocurrency More Accessible for Everyone appeared first on CoinMarketCap Blog.

source https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/2020/04/02/binance-and-coinmarketcap-announce-acquisition-to-collectively-make-cryptocurrency-more-accessible-for-everyone/