After Controversial CoinMarketCap Acquisition, CZ Seeks Community Feedback

Following Binance’s recent acquisition of CoinMarketCap, the exchange’s CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has asked the crypto community what changes they would like to see made to the popular and controversial crypto market data aggregator.

The community polling comes amid a skeptical reaction to the rumored $400 million acquisition from the crypto-sphere at large, with many expressing concerns regarding Binance’s growing power and presence within the digital currency industry.

Zhao requests community feedback on CMC changes

On April 22, CZ took to Twitter to ask the crypto community what changes it would like to see made to CoinMarketCap:

“Listen-to-community time. What would you like to see improved, added or removed from @CoinMarketCap.”

Charlie Shrem, the founder of early crypto exchange BitInstant, stated: “Alot,” before adding, “But it's still great right now.”

Other users requested the removal of “scamcoins,” greater efforts to combat fake exchange volumes, and new pages dedicated to tracking active addresses and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

Twitter user "don tello" cited Zhao's previous assertions that CoinMarketCap would operate independently of Binance, sarcastically tweeting:

“But I thought you weren't going to influence anything and they were continuing to operate independently? That look long.”

CMC excited for future under Binance umbrella

Speaking at the recent BlockDown 2020 conference, CoinMarketCap’s CSO and interim chief executive, Carylyne Chan, discussed Binance’s purchase of the company.

Chan stated that the acquisition "is really good for CMC in the way that we feel we can tap into the expertise of Binance,” emphasizing that the company has grown to employ more than 900 staff since launching in 2017.

She noted that the departure of the company’s founder Brandon Chez is among the largest changes resulting from the acquisition, however, she emphasized that Brandon “feels that he has placed his trust in the team, and in the new parent company.”

Overall, Chan stated that the CoinMarketCap team is “really excited about where [CMC] could go” following the acquisition.

Regarding the company’s plans for appointing a new chief executive, the interim-CEO stated, “I think we haven’t decided what we will do in the long term.”