New U.K. Bitcoin Exchange Overwhelmed By ‘Crazy’ Demand Amid Brexit Uncertainty
Story by: Billy Bambrough
Bitcoin has had a rocky start to 2019, though cryptocurrency developments are still rolling on with many hoping the year-long bitcoin bear market—labeled crypto winter for its debilitating effect on the industry—will soon thaw.
Now, Hong Kong-based Binance, the world’s largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has said it’s been “overwhelmed” by registrations for its new Jersey-based trading platform, which the exchange’s widely respected chief executive Changpeng Zhao, often known as CZ, put down to “crazy” demand.
Meanwhile, the U.K. is stuck in Brexit gridlock as it struggles to find a path out of the European Union following its decision to quit the trading bloc over two years ago, playing havoc with local financial markets and casting doubt over the country’s future as a traditional banking hub.
Binance Jersey, which opened for registrations on Tuesday this week, will allow users to trade euros and British pounds with bitcoin and ethereum and access digital asset management services.
“Binance.je is overwhelmed with registrations,” CZ said via Twitter earlier today. “There is a backlog of KYC (Know Your Customer) verifications already. More resources are allocated to reduce it. In the meantime, we appreciate your understanding and patience. Just crazy! One thing we do ‘well’ is underestimating ourselves, and the market.”
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Binance has said it expects the island of Jersey, which is a self-governing dependency of the U.K., to be a major driving force of increasing cryptocurrency use in the European market, with Brexit part of its reasoning for expanding into the region.
“Expanding the cryptocurrency exchange markets with fiat currencies in the European region is opening new economic opportunities for Europeans as well as freedom from looming Brexit uncertainty where the pound and euro are also in concern,” said Binance chief financial officer Wei Zhou. “Through Binance Jersey, we want to help bridge the crypto-fiat channel for Europe and the U.K. as part of our global expansion to support broader cryptocurrency adoption.”
Cryptocurrency take-up in Europe has so far been sluggish compared to U.S. and East Asian markets, however, with daily bitcoin exchange volume on the continent less than 4% of the global volume late last year, according to CryptoCompare, a data provider.