Binance is ‘in it for the long game’ when it comes to Europe and doesn’t fear the crypto crash

euronews.com:

As crypto winter sends a chill down the markets, with the price of Bitcoin crashing below the key threshold of $20,000 (€19,000) and crypto exchanges laying off staff as fears of a recession bite, the world’s largest crypto exchange says it’s all déjà vu and is not concerned.

“It's an early industry and we’ve been through these cycles before. And I think it's sort of a natural part of this industry,” said Martin Bruncko, Binance’s Executive Vice President for Europe, in an interview with Euronews Next at this year’s VivaTech conference in Paris.

Bruncko admitted that while it was “very sad” to see companies go bankrupt and people lose money, such lower parts of the crypto price cycle can also spur innovation.

“Every time you have a crash, even in the normal tech industry, usually great things come out of it,” he said.

“And incidentally, some of the greatest companies like Facebook and LinkedIn, are companies that were all created in that first big Internet crash of 2001. So, I think it's a kind of a cathartic event also for the industry”.

It is a strikingly different picture painted in comparison to competitor Coinbase.

It was reported last week that it would be laying off a fifth of its workforce due to a possible recession, a need to manage costs and growing “too quickly” during a bull market, according to an email CEO Brian Armstrong sent to employees.

Binance, on the other hand, is spending big, especially in Europe.

The Chinese company announced in April it would help build Web3 and blockchain projects at Station F - the Parisian start-up incubator - as part of a €100 million injection into France, an initiative it dubbed Objective Moon.

The start-ups that are selected will be hosted at Station F for free and could benefit