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Earlier today, the CEO of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, posted a rather intriguing tweet, asking whether people would like to earn cryptocurrency in their sleep, hinting that something new was in the works. Is lending coming to Binance?
BNB Price Spikes Following CZ’s Tweet
The price of Binance Coin (BNB) is up 4.6 percent in the past 24 hours. However, the majority of its gains came right after Changpeng Zhao, the exchange’s CEO, posted a mysterious tweet which sparked the community’s curiosity.
Would you like to earn #crypto while you sleep?
Keep an eye on @binance today.
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) August 26, 2019
The implication was that Binance would introduce a way to earn cryptocurrency passively, without needing to trade or engage in any other activities. Zhao also hinted that whatever Binance has in store would come to light today.
Naturally, the community was quick to speculate that Binance lending might soon be a thing.
What Is Binance Lending?
The world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange introduced margin trading back in July, as reported by CryptoPotato.
Based on the latest tweet, it is entirely possible that the exchange will allow its users to lend their crypto to those who wish to use it for leverage. In return, they would receive a certain amount of interest depending on the period of time for which they’ve lent their cryptocurrency.
This is a rather interesting concept that would be useful for Binance’s users, further establishing the exchange as a market leader. However, at the time of this writing, the landing page for Binance Lending is still not available.
In May, Binance entered into an agreement with California-based Cred in order to provide cryptocurrency lending and borrowing services throughout its ecosystem.
It will be very interesting to see whether that is the case. If Zhao stays true to his word, we will get the announcement today.
The news comes shortly after Binance announced that it will introduce localized stablecoins which resemble the model of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency.
UPDATE: Binance Lending Confirmed
Binance Lending has been confirmed on its official website, though it’s marked “coming soon”.
Users will be able to lend two cryptocurrencies: Binance Coin (BNB) and stablecoin Tether (USDT).
Users will be able to lend their crypto for a specified period of time and receive interest at the end of their subscription period. For BNB lenders, the annualized interest rate will be 15%, while for USDT it will be 10%. Users will be able to lend up to 200,000 BNB and up to 10,000,000 USDT.
Interestingly enough, Binance will also make sure that BNB holders who lend their BNB will be able to make use of them when it comes to the snapshots for Binance Launchpad’s Initial Exchange Offerings (IEO), thereby providing them with yet another way to profit.