Binance.com to add fiat pairs; starting with Russian rubles ‘in about two weeks’

Binance.com, the largest crypto-to-crypto exchange, is preparing to add support for trading between fiat and crypto — starting first with Russian rubles. 

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao “CZ” announced the news at the Open Innovations conference in Moscow, Russia on Monday, saying: “In about two weeks or so, we should have support for Russian rubles trading directly. So you [will be able to] buy cryptocurrencies on Binance.com using rubles."

Just last week, on Oct. 16, Binance quietly added euro (EUR) and British pound (GBP) pairs to its application programming interface or API.

Binance intended to launch a fiat-to-crypto exchange in Russia earlier this year, among other countries. So far, the exchange has launched four international fiat-to-crypto exchanges - in Uganda, Jersey, Singapore and the U.S.

The Block has reached out to Binance for a comment on the new initiative and will update this story if the firm responds. 

Binance has been expanding its fiat gateways, giving users more options to buy cryptocurrencies. Last month, the exchange partnered with London-based payments processor Koinal for a fiat gateway, which allows users to purchase cryptocurrencies with Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards, as well as via wire bank transfers. Binance also has similar partnerships with Simplex, Paxos and TrustToken for its fiat gateway channels.

CZ said at the time that Binance will "continue to build fiat-to-crypto gateways in our effort to increase accessibility and adoption of crypto.”