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M’sians Can Now Buy Bitcoin Using E-Wallets Like ShopeePay, GrabPay & Touch ‘n Go eWallet

Today, cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that Binance P2P, its peer-to-peer trading market where you can trade crypto in exchange for your local currency, has added new e-payment options for Southeast Asian currencies.

These include:

  • PayNow
  • Paylah
  • ShopeePay
  • DANA
  • LinkAja
  • Gopay
  • OVO
  • Touch ‘n Go eWallet
  • GrabPay 

What this means for users is that you’ll be able to trade cryptocurrencies by receiving or sending money through more e-wallets for transactions.

Disclaimer: Binance (binance.com) is not a regulated exchange by the Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia. Binance.sg is registered under Binance Asia Services Pte. Ltd. (“Binance Asia”), a private limited company incorporated in Singapore (UEN: 201811768M).

  • Screenshots of Binance’s mobile application with the various payment options
  • At the time of writing, Vulcan Post noted that no Malaysia merchants have added e-wallet options to their listings

Behind Binance

Binance is a centralised cryptocurrency exchange registered in Malta. It was founded by Changpeng Zhao (CEO) in 2017. 

Currently, it’s the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, with a 24-hour trading volume of roughly ₿674,197, or US$31 billion. There are more than 280 coins and 900 trading pairs available on Binance, including the meme coin popularised by Elon Musk, dogecoin.

Although Binance.com is not a regulated exchange, there are a number of regulated local exchanges using the Binance brand and technology, including Binance Singapore (binance.sg), Binance.US (binance.us), and Binance Jersey (binance.je). All of these are independently operated and fully compliant with their local regulations. 

Binance P2P’s page

But Will SC Allow It?

My take is, SC will likely pressure e-wallet companies to take down or find ways to prohibit users from trading cryptocurrencies through their e-wallets, outside of existing exchanges approved by SC.

But whether or not this ban can be enforced effectively is debatable, as it is difficult to ascertain the purpose of a transaction via P2P. 

On the flip side, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, GrabPay and other supported e-wallets would be potentially opening up access to the crypto markets for the masses, including the unbanked, enabling users to access the cryptocurrency market easily.

For multicurrency e-wallets like GrabPay as well, this may make them the preferred choice because users can then travel to a country with their bitcoin and trade to a local currency easily.

We have reached out to crypto communities for comment regarding this newly added feature. As of now, some have already echoed the sentiment that this would increase user adoption for cryptocurrencies in Southeast Asia.

  • You can learn more about this announcement from Binance here.
  • You can read our other articles on cryptocurrency here.

Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post

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