The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has told Cointelegraph that a fiat-cryptocurrency exchange is about to launch in Uganda. Binance Uganda’s exchange website is already online and registration is ongoing; it appears the Ugandan Shilling (UGX) will be the primary fiat used on the exchange. This would be Binance’s first fiat-crypto exchange, and comes less than a month after Binance acquired an EUR bank account in Malta. Zhao says Binance will be launching fiat-crypto exchanges in two to three more locations in the short term.
Binance Uganda has been “progressing really fast” according to Zhao, due to the very positive government attitude towards cryptocurrency. Indeed, the President of Uganda, Yoweria Kugata Museveni, made highly encouraging statements about blockchain technology at the inaugural Africa Blockchain Conference which was held in Uganda in May 2018.
Zhao says, “Uganda is a really interesting situation, only 11% of the population has bank accounts. It’s both a challenge and an opportunity. So it may be easier to adopt cryptocurrency as a form of currency instead of trying to push for bank adoption”.
Cryptocurrency’s decentralized nature has made it an excellent option for people considered unbankable due to their low credit scores and criminal history, or in the case of Uganda, unbankable due to a lack of banking infrastructure. In general, cryptocurrency has been flourishing in countries like Nigeria and Venezuela where the local fiat currencies are weak.
According to Zhao, opening more channels for fiat to enter the cryptocurrency market will help increase cryptocurrency prices, and this is precisely what Binance is doing in Uganda and other locations during the next year. He is unfazed by the cryptocurrency market decline during 2018 saying this is normal, and Binance is working on technology to handle 100 to 1,000 more volume than it can handle presently in expectation of the next cryptocurrency bull market.
Binance is the top cryptocurrency exchange in the world as of this writing on 28 June 2018 with volume near USD 1 billion per day, and the launching of fiat functionality will help cement this top rank.
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