Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has announced its intention to launch a public blockchain platform called Venus. The new platform is being developed in partnership with Cred, a crypto lending and borrowing platform.
The announcement was made during the Binance Blockchain Week event in Singapore. According to the press release, Venus will be “a decentralized cross-chain lending and borrowing protocol” that will “empower billions of people with access to free financial services.”
“With the launch of Venus, we are excited to help power the development of a new decentralized financial ecosystem that provides more access, opportunity, and inclusion for all,” said Brian Brooks, Cred’s CEO.
The Venus protocol will be built on top of the Binance Chain blockchain and will be compatible with other blockchains such as Ethereum, EOS, and TRON. The platform will use smart contracts to facilitate lending and borrowing transactions.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said that the launch of Venus is part of the company’s mission to “increase the freedom of money.” He added that the platform will “bring new opportunities and possibilities for real-world use cases in DeFi (decentralized finance).”
CZ also announced that Binance has invested in a number of projects that are building on Venus, including Celer Network, Akropolis, CertiK, Trust Wallet, and Decentraland. He said that these projects will help to “accelerate the adoption” of Venus.
The Venus protocol is still in development and is expected to launch sometime in 2020. Binance has not yet announced any specific details about how the platform will work or how users will be able to access it.