One of the world’s most successful exchanges, Binance, recently announced that it has hired Wei Zhou, an experienced Wall Street executive, as its new Chief Financial Officer.
Introducing Wei Zhou – Chief Financial Officer of #Binance pic.twitter.com/yIZeggIXgR
— Binance (@binance) September 7, 2018
Nothing has been official yet, but rumor has it that this is the first move that could be considered the company’s first step toward an IPO.
Zhou distinctly worked as the CFO of Zhaopin.com and Charm Communications, where he led both companies through IPO listings on the NYSE and Nasdaq, respectively. The hiring of a CFO with notable capital markets experience, particularly one who’s taken recurring companies through the IPO listing process, can unquestionably be seen as an indicator that Binance is considering a similar route.
Although Binance does not necessarily need the capital associated with a public listing, it pulled in more than $200 million in the first quarter of the year, the exchange would definitely reach a wider audience of institutional investors to help further build its dominance within the market. Additionally, an IPO would allow early backers of Binance to exit their positions and would likely help the company further segregate itself from the ongoing concerns with Sequoia Capital.
Notably, Binance carried an initial coin offering (ICO) for its platform token, Binance Coin (BNB), where it raised more than $15 million last fall. BNB is currently ranked 15th in the AltDex 100 Index (ALT100), a benchmark index for large-cap cryptocurrencies and tokens.
