Binance Says It Wants to Get More People Using Crypto With Its New Payments Service

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has launched a payments system called Binance Pay in what its CEO says is a move aimed at getting people to use crypto rather than merely holding it.

According to the exchange's page about the new product, Binance Pay, currently in beta, allows users to make "contactless, borderless and secure" cryptocurrency payments around the world.

“Binance Pay is a basket product which we do plan to spend a lot of effort on this year. We think that payments is one of the most obvious use cases for crypto,” said Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, announcing the news at the virtual Binance Blockchain Week event Tuesday.

The Pay platform allows users to pay and be paid in five cryptocurrencies – bitcoin, ether, swipe (SXP), BNB and BUSD – and one fiat currency so far, the euro.

When CoinDesk asked Binance if it intends to add more payment options, a representative said more information on "functionalities and plans" would be released soon.

Users will need to top up their Binance Pay wallets (shared with the Binance Card wallet) in order to make payments. QR codes are generated when a payment is made that can be scanned by the recipient in order to receive their funds.

According to CZ, payments is one of the "most obvious use cases for crypto," but merchants face difficulties with fluctuating prices and low adoption.

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Binance Pay gives merchants the option to accept fiat-backed stablecoins (so far limited to its own BUSD token) so they aren't affected by price volatility, he said.

Further, "users can pay in crypto directly. This allows the users to stay completely in crypto,” CZ added.