Binance Launches Decentralized Exchange Ahead of Schedule

Binance’s much anticipated decentralized exchange (DEX) has gone live ahead of its planned schedule.

The world’s top cryptocurrency exchange by adjusted volume announced the news on Tuesday, saying that while trading will begin “at a later date,” users can now create wallets on Binance DEX.

A representative told CoinDesk that trading will launch “as soon as tokens are issued and listed on Binance DEX, and trading pairs are created. We’re expecting this to happen soon, in the next few days.”

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in the announcement:

“We believe decentralized exchanges bring new hope and new possibilities, offering a trustless and transparent financial system. … With no central custody of funds, Binance DEX offers far more control over your own assets.”

The news comes just a week after the firm announced its native blockchain, Binance Chain, was live. Its exchange token BNB has also been launched as the native asset on the blockchain, with the previous ethereum ERC-20 standard (BNB) being replaced with “BEP2” on Binance Chain. Holders of the old token can now swap them for the new form on Binance.com.

Binance Chain supports various wallets at launch, including Binance’s official Trust Wallet, as well as offerings from Coinomi, Ledger, Enjin, Exodus and more. The exchange is also inviting other crypto projects to get involved by issuing new tokens on Binance Chain.

The launch of the DEX follows a two-month testing period, during which Binance said nearly 8.5 million transactions were made across various competitions and programs.

The DEX platform offers a similar interface to its existing centralized exchange, with some additional features, such as an option to generate a 24-word mnemonic seed phrase to secure users’ private keys.

In March, Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx also announced a plan to launch a decentralized exchange called OKDEx on its own blockchain OKChain. The exchange said that OKChain is currently at the “final” development stage and that a test network launch is expected in June.

And, last summer, Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi said it would evolve into a standalone DEX, at the time offering funding for developer assistance in creating an open-sourced blockchain protocol for the effort.

Changpeng Zhao image via Shutterstock