Vertex Ventures, a diverse group of venture capital funds focused on IT and health care, has reportedly invested in digital asset exchange Binance. According to Bloomberg, the investment will be directed toward launching a Singapore-based fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange.
Vertex Ventures, a subsidiary of Singapore’s state investment company, Temasek Holdings, has not yet disclosed the amount of funds invested.
An official statement from Vertex Ventures noted that its funding is part of a “joint investment” between its offices in China and its business operations in India and the Southeast Asia region.
Institutional Investors Entering The Crypto Space
As one of the oldest and most established venture capitals firms in the Southeast Asia region, Vertex Ventures’ investment in the nascent crypto asset industry is a sign that institutional investors are beginning to take more interest in blockchain-related financial technologies.
Commenting on the planned launch of the fiat-to-crypto asset exchange, which will reportedly adhere to strict know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory requirements, Choon Chong Tay, the managing partner at Vertex Ventures said:
Changpeng Zhao is one of the most well-respected entrepreneurs in blockchain with high inspiration to build and promote the blockchain ecosystem. He represents the new generation of China-originated entrepreneurs building products for the world.
During the Consensus Conference held in Singapore last month, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, told CryptoGlobe that launching exchanges which support crypto-to-fiat trading “take longer to set up because [Binance] actually [does not] control some of the parts, especially regarding bank accounts, fiat gateways … It’s a lot more tricky than pure crypto because with pure crypto, we control everything; the blockchain does not reject us… [However,] things are coming along quite well.”
Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Invest In Crypto
As CryptoGlobe reported on October 18th, giant Wall Street investment bank, Goldman Sachs, and billionaire Michael Novogratz’s venture capital fund, Galaxy Digital Ventures, announced that they had invested in BitGo Holdings, a crypto startup focused on developing custody solutions.
Also as covered on October 15th, Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest financial services corporations with over $7.2 trillion of assets under management, announced its plans to launch Fidelity Digital Assets Services (in 2019).
As described by Fidelity, its digital asset arm will aim to provide “enterprise-quality custody and trade execution services” for cryptocurrencies to institutional investors. Specifically, these include “hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries”.
