One of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, Binance, made its first strategic Chinese investments since leaving China back in 2017. Binance joined the third funding round of Beijing-based Mars Finance, a local crypto and blockchain news publication.
The exact amount invested wasn’t disclosed; however, Chinese media and data source Mars Finance is valued at somewhere in the vicinity of $200 million. According to Bloomberg, Mars Finance can be a potential rival to leading crypto and blockchain news outlets such as CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph and our very own AllStocks Crypto News.
Binance CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted a confirmation about the news as he related to the new investment and indicated a strong support from the company. He wrote:
Aside from Binance, many other renowned firms have joined this investment round. These firms include Ceyuan Ventures and Matrixport, the crypto startup that has been built by Wu Jihan, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain.
Discussing the investment, Binance CEO Zhao said:
“We have large respect for data, news and research firms which support the positive growth of the blockchain industry. We will continue to pursue strategic investment opportunities in our mission to bring crypto further mainstream, increase adoption and accessibility, and help the industry grow sustainably.”
This investment is the first strategic investment made by Binance after it left mainland China as the anti-crypto government in Beijing banned digital coin trading. Discussing further the company’s investment in Mars Finance, Zhao added that that the company has been doing pretty well since its inception.
China-Based Crypto News Site Started in 2018
Mars Finance, the Beijing-based crypto and blockchain news outlet, was founded by local entrepreneur Wang Feng in 2018. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese-language crypto news services of Mars Finance can make it a potential rival to all other cryptocurrency news outlets.
The firm has already completed two funding rounds previously, which included investment firms like IDG Capital, a major American VC firm and the venture arms of exchange operators OKCoin and Huobi. The company also offers market reports and has also been operating its own venture fund called Consensus Lab, which has made investments in the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinsuper that provides professional digital asset trading and customized services.
Before starting with Mars Finance, Wang Feng co-founded a mobile gaming and publishing platform in 2007, which went public in Hong Kong in 2014. The Chinese version of Mars Finance uses the domain huoxing24[dot]com and it is respectably ranked as the 25,527 most popular website according to Alexa, although it has declined from around 16,000 several months ago. The English-version website of Mars Finance, however, remains inactive since the beginning of the year.
