Binance leads investment round in Chinese crypto-data website Mars Finance at $200m valuation

Binance made a strategic investment in crypto-data website Mars Finance.

This is the first time the dominant exchange invested in a Chinese company since Beijing banned cryptocurrency trading in 2017.Growing crypto news outlet gets a boost from Binance.

Crypto exchange giant Binance has been on a roll in the past couple of months.

The Malta-based exchange then announced it had made a strategic investment in a Chinese news outlet Mars Finance.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Binance joined a funding round that valued Mars Finance at around $200 million.

"We will continue to pursue strategic investment opportunities in our mission to bring crypto further mainstream, increase adoption and accessibility, and help the industry grow sustainably."

With the support of three of the biggest crypto exchanges to come out of Asia, Mars Finance seems to have set a very ambitious goal.

Mars Finance also operates a venture capital fund called Consensus Labs, which brought many to believe the company was copying the business model of several U.S. based crypto media outlets.

Wang Feng, the company's founder, said that Mars Finance processes "Nearly 10,000 pieces of information" generated by the blockchain industry daily.

Coupled with its expansion to the U.S. and the launch of a derivatives trading platform, Binance's investment in Mars Finance shows the exchange is tightening its grip over the global crypto market.