Binance explores more fiat-to-crypto options as market faces low buying interest

While 2019 was seen by many as the year when the crypto-industry would mature, this optimism was discounted after it recently recorded a major collapse that pulled the collective market cap down to $221 billion, with a few coins suffering double-digit losses as well. The recent lows led to major coins facing a high selling rate. At a time like this, what can essentially drive mass adoption?

Bridging the gap between fiat and crypto

According to the Swiss crypto-brokerage firm Bity, mass adoption can only happen once there are more “natural methods” readily available for people to enter and exit the crypto-market. Binance’s latest announcement of building fiat-to-crypto gateways, at the infrastructure level, is an effort to increase accessibility and adoption of crypto at a time when the market has witnessed a drop in buying opportunities.

Binance CEO CZ spoke about the latest integration with Koinal to enable the purchase of cryptocurrencies via local currency via debit or credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard, as well as wire bank transfers and Binance’s plan to add over-the-counter [OTC] trading to provide users with fiat currency gateways in an AMA session on 26 September. CZ commented,

“Now we are getting much more deeper into it. Binance.com started as a crypto to crypto exchange, we really didn’t touch fiat for nearly two years, but now we have learned our ropes and we do want to facilitate the fiat to crypto conversion.”

He added,

“Also, to let you know we are actually exploring ways to withdraw fiat as well”

In January this year, when the cryptocurrency market stood below a market cap of $115 billion, Binance surprised the crypto-community with its move to provide a fiat onramp for users around the world.

Binance’s latest efforts in enabling users to finance the trading of crypto in a way that suits their preference and the option of exiting the space smoothly could be one of the biggest catalysts to minimize adoption friction and increase user engagement at a time when market indicators have pictured a gloomy phase for the industry.

In yet another development, Seoul-based cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb rolled out fiat-to-crypto on-ramps as part of its revamped exchange interface. This will allow users to purchase digital assets with their credit cards on their desktop, or through the mobile app. The official release stated,

“Users around the globe can now purchase digital assets with credit cards. The convenience of using a credit card also includes additional time savings with instant crypto to wallet transfers and low fees”