Binary ICO Date: 15th November 2017-25th December 2017.
Binary, owned and operated by the Binary Ltd. group of companies, is an award-winning company that specializes in online options trading, such as binary options, forex and CED products. Binary employs a variety of different contracts for investors to explore and invest with including ranging contract sizes, ranging contract lengths and contracts for dozens of markets (Commodities, indexes, virtual events, stocks and currency pairs, to name a few).
BACKGROUND.
Since starting in 1999, Binary.com has grown to become one of the world’s leading binary options platforms. A binary option is an option with a fixed payout that is determined at the start of the trade. If your prediction is correct, you receive an agreed payout. If not, you lose your initial stake, and no more. The options are called ‘binary’ because there can be only two outcomes - win or lose.
The growth of Binary.com led them to contemplate an Initial Public Offering (or IPO). But with the progress of blockchain technology, they are now in a position to hold an Initial Coin Offering (or ICO). “The next step for a company of our size is naturally to go public by means of an Initial Public Offering (IPO). However, an IPO in itself is a cumbersome process that’s remained relatively unchanged for decades. Some would say it’s ripe for disruption,” says Binary.com Founder & CEO, Jean-Yves Sireau.
“By opting for the ICO route –– a kind of ‘IPO on the blockchain’ –– we can go beyond the limitations of a traditional IPO. We get a wider reach of potential investors, lower costs of trading and an immutable audit trail of transactions on the blockchain. Through the ICO, we can also establish our trading services among the cryptocurrency community, which is a prime target demographic for our platform,” adds Sireau.
HOW IT WORKS.
Along with an array of platforms, trading algorithms and bots, and even a mobile online trading platform, Binary is now launching a new trading platform that lets investors trade with cryptocurrencies. Clients of the company will be able to deposit, trade, and withdraw funds in Bitcoin, Litecoin, with support for Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum incoming.
How can blockchain technology improve binary options trading? Here are the stated advantages:
- Lower transaction costs. When you transact in cryptocurrency, the cost is minimal – practically free when trading directly between individuals, and around 0.1-0.3% when trading on a centralized cryptocurrency exchange. In contrast, transacting in stocks can be expensive – brokers typically charge between $10 to $50, or a percentage of the purchase price which can be as high as 1%. And if you want to buy shares listed on an overseas exchange via your local broker, the cost is even higher.
- Round-the-clock trading. Cryptocurrency exchanges are open 24/7. In contrast, stock exchanges have very limited opening hours. For example, the London Stock Exchange is only open 08:00 to 16:30 weekdays.
- Faster settlement. Cryptocurrency transfers settle in minutes. In contrast, stock exchanges typically settle in one or two business days.
- Immutable and public audit trail. With blockchain technologies, the audit trail of transactions is public for anyone to see. This greatly reduces errors and potential for disputes. In contrast, when you purchase shares on a stock exchange, there is no public audit trail that you can easily query and check your transaction.
- Faster and cheaper fund transfers. Funding a cryptocurrency exchange account – with Bitcoin or Ether, for example – costs very little, and settles in minutes, or at most hours. In contrast, funding your account with a traditional broker requires a bank transfer, which can be expensive and slow. International transfers using the SWIFT network can cost $40 for a single transfer, and can take days to arrive.
- Trading venue flexibility. ERC20 tokens are based on a standard protocol and can be easily listed on a number of cryptocurrency exchanges (and transferred between exchanges) without any complications or costs. In contrast, a company listed on one stock exchange will see its shares only traded on that exchange.
BINARY TOKEN USES.
Binary Tokens –under certain circumstances can be converted one-for-one into “real” company shares, and in the interim will also receive dividends similar to the common stock – representing about 5% ownership of the company.
PREVIOUS ACTIVITY.
Binary Ltd., formerly known as Regent Markets Group Ltd., was founded in October 1999 by Hong Kong based hedge fund manager and entrepreneur Jean-Yves Sireau. After receiving $2 million in funding in 1999, Sireau filed his unique position as the then sole serious competitor in the business of fixed-odds financial betting and registered the company under BetOnMarkets.
Since being established in 2000 as BetOnMarkets.com, the company has been registering consistent growth with the past three years being particularly successful for Binary.com. Net profits for 2015 surpassed the $10 million mark, with the number reaching to just below $14 million last year. The company’s turnover was over $750 million in 2015, and almost $850 million last year. Shareholders received close to $14 million in dividend payments last year and $12 million in 2016.
The firm states that this year the number of active clients that are using its platform surpassed 100,000. The number is materially higher than last year when the company’s clients reached close to 80,000.
The total number of transactions Binary.com clients executed reached almost 140 million in 2015 and dipped only slightly last year. The company expects it to rebound this year.
WORKING PRODUCT.
They already have a working product.
SIMILAR PROJECTS.
Spectre.
Spectre aims to bring transparency and remove the middleman for trading in the binary options and foreign exchange (FX) industries.
Spectre is building a trading platform that enables users to bet on the direction of financial assets using cryptocurrencies. It is similar to a gambling platform except the underlying assets are traditional asset classes like FX and options.
The traditional digital options and FX trading industry are riddled with fraud. For example, brokers would manipulate prices and even refuse or delay client withdrawals. By utilizing blockchain technology, conflict of interest can be reduced because the middleman is removed.
A key feature of Spectre is the utilization of a liquidity pool. This way, users can trade even when there is no counterparty taking up the other side of the trade. This way, liquidity can be guaranteed.
Blockoptions.
Blockoptions is a decentralized binary trading option platform that announced ICO launch on august 25 2017 at 00.00 CET to fund further project development. BOPT token will be used as dividend to token holders and as an in-trade currency.
HOW IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PROJECTS IN THE SPACE?
They have been in the industry for several years.
It’s not decentralized.
USER REVIEWS.
When will the ETH and BCH options be available?
[The ETH and BCH options will be available soon, we are working on it. Once it’s up, we will announce it]
[According to Lykke it is not an ICO but an IPO! As far as I understand the difference is that Binary offers actual shares of its company and not just another worthless token. Big news I would say! Can‘t wait to see many more real companys using Lykke as platform for IPO‘s!]
