Ella Zhang - Head of Binance Labs
Binance tweeted yesterday that they've appointed Stanford graduate Ella Zhang as Head of Binance Labs. Similar to Huobi Labs, Binance Labs is an incubator that helps promising cryptocurrency and blockchain startups. Oftentimes, newly-launched companies have great ideas and talented people, however, they lack the financial resources and industry experience required to develop the products outlined in their whitepaper.
Ella Zhang reportedly served as investment director at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a leading investment advisory company. The Binance tweet also mentioned that she has previously worked at Google and Tencent, a major Chinese multinational investment firm. Ella's other notable professional experience includes working in sales at UTStarcom, a worldwide provider of telecommunications infrastructure. Additionally, the University of Electronic Science and Technology graduate is the co-founder of XiaoduoAI, which provides natural language processing (NLP) chatbot services to large online retail companies such as Taobao.
Binance Already Outperforming Leading Financial Institutions
Binance, as most crypto enthusiasts would know, has now become more profitable than Deutsche bank, Germany's leading banking institution. In fact, as Crypto Core Media reported, the giant cryptocurrency exchange achieved $200 million in Q1 2018 profits. In comparison, Deutsche bank only generated $146 million in Q1 2018 profits. It also appears that digital currency exchanges are a lot more efficient in terms of the the amount of resources required.
Binance only has a couple of hundred employees while Deutsche bank has more than 100,000 workers on their payroll. With the recent addition of Ella Zhang to Binance's executive roster, it's a sign that the company could be looking to further boost its sales and marketing efforts. Notably, there is clearly no comparison here when we take operations efficiency into consideration - Binance wins hands down. Moreover, the legitimacy of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are heavily traded on Binance and other digital asset exchanges such as Coinbase, has recently taken a big step forward.
Institutional Investors To Enter Cryptocurrency Market
Simply creating an account on Binance will expose you to the high-level of security that the exchange provides. There are multiple authentication and verification procedures built onto the exchange's website, such as the typical 2 factor-authentication and ID is required for transactions of over 2 BTC per day. This should help limit the use of digital currencies in money laundering and other illicit activities.
Till now, crypto trading and investments have mainly attracted individual and retail investors. However, things are beginning to really warm up. Notably, LMAX Exchange, a London based forex trading company that has helped clients trade over $10 trillion in fiat currency, recently announced that it's set to launch an FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) regulated cryptocurrency exchange. All the major cryptos will be supported such as Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ethereum (ETH). The exchange will be called LMAX Digital and is designed specifically to serve institutional investors.
Institutional Investors Coming to Coinbase and BitMEX
Also, as Crypto Core Media reported yesterday, Coinbase is developing products targeted for institutional investors, as the exchange expects tens of billions of dollars in investments from institutional clients. Similarly, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes told CNBC that his company is preparing to serve institutional investors as well. Notably, banks and hedge funds have been hesitant about investing in the digital currency market because they are looking for a legitimate solution which will help them safely and securely manage cryptocurrencies.
To provide such services, Coinbase and LMAX Exchange aim to provide custodian services. Presumably, it would only be a natural progression for Binance and BitMEX to provide similar services in order to accommodate institutional investors, where all the big money comes from. Also, Binance might look to Ella Zhang to help them with her lead generations skills, which she used to target giant online retailers such as Amazon and Newegg while working for Google.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://cryptocoremedia.com/ella-zhang-binance/