Brave Partners With Binance to Develop In-Browser Crypto Trading

Privacy-focused browser Brave Software is hoping to facilitate in-browser cryptocurrency trading, though it’s not quite ready yet.

Brave announced Tuesday it was partnering with Binance to develop an in-browser crypto trading tool which will ultimately let users deposit, swap, purchase and trade crypto right from Brave Browser’s launch and new tab windows. There, a natively-integrated crypto widget executes actions via Binance and Binance.US, depending on the user’s country.  

Most of those features are not functional at launch, CoinDesk found. The widget is only accessible on Brave’s “Nightly” developer-stage browser, and as of Wednesday afternoon, it is limited to booting up purchase orders through the Binance Fiat Gateway. Brave said a wider release is expected in April.

Brave CEO Brendan Eich declined to disclose the terms of the deal. 

“Adding a widget that seamlessly helps users acquire and trade crypto is a natural evolution of our features,” Eich told CoinDesk. He said the “crypto-savvy” user base has been “clamouring” for a trade function to go along with Brave’s existing ethereum wallet.

The Crypto Browser is working on mobile wallets and plans to expand it to other blockchains, he said. 

Brave has been courting the crypto community for much of its existence as a privacy-centric alternative to other, more popular browser services. In 2017, it ran a $35 million ICO for its ERC-20 “Basic Attention Tokens,” now the backbone for the Brave Rewards ad views compensation system. 

The addition of a trading tool puts Brave more squarely in the race with other crypto-focused browsers, like Opera, which holds over 2 percent market share according to statcounter (Brave’s privacy functions make it difficult to measure its slice of the pie).

Opera recently expanded its integrated crypto purchase functions.