Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of market capitalization, is listing another token to support the growth of decentralized finance, or DeFi. Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), a new ERC-20 token pegged to the price of Bitcoin (BTC), is now tradeable on Binance, according to an Aug. 31 blog post by the exchange. As officially announced, Binance users can now start deposit WBTC as well as trade the token against Bitcoin and Ether (ETH). Introduced in 2019, Wrapped Bitcoin is an Ethereum-based token that represents Bitcoin, with one WBTC being equal to one BTC. WBTC is a joint initiative by …

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has targeted London commuters with new ads featuring Bitcoin. According to an Aug. 28 tweet from Binance.UK, the crypto exchange has placed new ads at 17 bus stops in London. The image shows two older generations of coins as well as a current two-pound coin used in the U.K, followed by the largest, Bitcoin. “Money is evolving,” the ad states. “It’s time to adapt.” #Bitcoin is taking over London! 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/FBGeEe3pgV — Binance (@binance) August 30, 2020 Binance announced its expansion into the U.K. market in June, with an exchange platform scheduled to launch …

Binance Charity and Integro Foundation raised $1 million to donate personal protective equipment to frontline workers. A total of 500,000 KN-95 masks will be distributed to workers in the Brazilian Amazon, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Bermuda, Barbados, St. Lucia, Haiti, Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, the Navajo nations, Russia and Puerto Rico. The initiative is part of the Crypto Against COVID campaign. Integro, founded in Puerto Rico in 2015, committed $333,000 to the initiative with Binance Charity matching that amount 2:1, the foundation said in a statement sent to Cointelegraph. Brock Pierce, chairman of the board …

OKEx is the latest cryptocurrency exchange to hop on the DeFi bandwagon. On August 28, they announced listings for eight different DeFi tokens, including Band Protocol (BAND), JUST (JST), REN, Reserve Rights (RSR), Yearn.finance (YFI), Nexus Mutual (wNXM), YFII.finance (YFII), and Tellor (TRB). These new listings expand their DeFi suite to a total of 27. OKEx’s CEO, Jay Hao, praised the DeFi sphere, stating: “OKEx has been keenly observing the DeFi market dynamics and trying our best to collaborate with high-quality innovative DeFi projects that show the most potential. We are very encouraged to see so many excellent projects emerging …

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has teamed up with privacy-centric blockchain-powered cloud computing developers Oasis Labs to fight fraud in the crypto sector. Oasis was announced as the inaugural member and primary infrastructure provider for the Binance-led CryptoSafe Alliance on August 27. Oasis Labs’ “confidential smart contracts” will be utilized in building the decentralized CryptoSafe Platform which is designed to share threat intelligence data among crypto exchanges. The CryptoSafe Platform will be powered by the Oasis Network blockchain. The firms emphasize the need for the platform to enable collaborative fraud detection while ensuring that the data of participating exchanges …

Binance.UK is joining the self-regulating industry association CryptoUK as an executive member. The exchange will join stakeholders such as Coinbase, CryptoCompare and Ripple in leading the association’s strategic direction, and working with government policy makers to develop a regulatory framework for digital assets in the United Kingdom. CryptoUK was formed in early 2018 and promotes an active code of conduct for its members. Binance.UK intends to take a proactive role in updating this to ensure that it continues to deliver best practices, input that is welcomed by CryptoUK Chair, Ian Taylor: “Binance.UK will bring significant local and global expertise to …

Compound Finance and Kava Labs were chosen as Binance’s two integration partners for the leading cryptocurrency exchange taking its first step into decentralized finance by launching DeFi staking. Time will tell if the benefit of Compound and Kava’s integration will provide value to the crypto community. So far, the indication looks promising, as the new DeFi staking product integration on Binance reached oversubscription in 30 minutes. With Kava launching its testnet soon, thereby allowing for even more than just Binance Coin (BNB) to migrate to its exchange, the bridge to USDCoin (USC) and Tether (USDT) finding their way onto Kava …

Binance.US, the United States branch of major crypto exchange Binance, just announced it would be making its services available to Florida residents. According to an Aug. 24 update on the Binance.US website, the digital asset marketplace will now be allowing Floridians to buy, trade, and earn digital assets. As of this writing, Binance.US has not yet removed Florida from the list of states in which its services can legally be used, which includes Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Washington. Binance.US CEO Catherine Coley also announced the expansion of the site’s services …

Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance is conducting a hackathon in India focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) that will be followed by an accelerator program. Dubbed “Build for Bharat,” the company claimed that this is the first-ever DeFi-focused hackathon and acceleration program being conducted in India. In a blog on Aug. 24, the company said that through the hackathon, they intend to bridge the gap between blockchain and mass adoption in India. Binance plans to shortlist 100 teams for the main event after assessing application forms submitted before Sep. 11. “We’re interested in DeFi products around mini-tokens, micro-financing applications, blockchain datasets, blockchain-AI …

Researchers have uncovered evidence that over $1 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from addresses linked to Ryuk ransomware attacks was moved through a wallet on Binance. According to a report by Forbes on Aug. 23 the researchers took a sample of 63 transactions, representing $5.7 million of the over $61 million estimated by the FBI to have been stolen using the Ryuk ransomware. Of the $5.7 million, $1,064,865 worth of Bitcoin from multiple wallet addresses was bounced through numerous non-connected wallets before eventually finding its way to Binance, where it was cashed out. The Binance wallet has been in use …

The Binance Chain mainnet, a blockchain software system developed by Binance and its community, is scheduled to do a hard fork upgrade around August 28 at 6:00 AM UTC. According to the company’s post on August 23, the full node runners on the mainnet are expected to switch their software version to v0.8.0 by the hard fork date. The change will have no impact on the BNB token holders and Binance Decentralized exchange users. However, full node operators of the Binance chain should follow the upgrade instructions on the main site to avoid disconnection and fail to send transaction troubles. …

As Russia is about to officially ban crypto payments within its borders starting on Jan. 1, 2021, Cointelegraph tracked down some senior executives in the crypto industry to talk about the implications of such a ban. Russia’s primary crypto opponent is Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the State Duma and a key architect of Russia’s crypto ban. In mid-August, Aksakov argued that legalizing crypto payments basically “means the destruction of a financial system.” Speaking to Cointelegraph, major global crypto figures like BitGo CEO Mike Belshe and Binance’s head of operations in Russia and CIS, Gleb Kostarev, concurred that payments in …