According to the announcement, DGB/BTC, DGB/BNB and DGB/BUSD trading pairs would soon be available on Binance. Though this change would not be implemented until 2020/06/22 at 2:00 PM (UTC), users could begin depositing DGB in anticipation for trading .
While Binance listing a new token is far from an anomaly, this particular announcement sent shockwaves through the industry. The token had been announced as under consideration for listing on Coinbase, another major exchange, and the management of Digibyte had celebrated the news online.
“Thank you @binance for listing $DGB, without any demands or listing fee. The voice of the #DigiByte community was heard,” a tweet from the official account said.
Following the listing of the token on Binance, the price of the token soared from $0.017 to $0.022 and many see this as a sign of new beginnings for the token. However, the fact that it is just being listed on Binance and considered for listing on Coinbase is rather curious. The DGB token is the 35th largest cryptocurrency market capitalization and Digibyte is considered one of the most innovative blockchains in existence. Why then has this move been delayed for so long?
DGB Missing in Action
Digibyte was created for the purpose of improving on the Bitcoin Core Protocol and has managed to achieve a faster speed and better efficiency than the concept it was based on. Despite all of this, the DGB token has mostly flown under the radar, seeing only a fraction of the popularity and success of its competitors. Its absence on major crypto exchanges was only a further testament to how underrated it was.
The Binance issue, however, reportedly stems from disputes between the former management of Digibyte and the management of Binance. In a 2019 interview with Cointelegraph, Jared Tate, the founder of Digibyte, shed light on the issue. According to him, they had first approached Binance about a possible listing for DGB back in 2017 when Binance saw an explosion in growth. He also stated that there was interest in the company’s DigiSign technology from Binance and despite winning a poll for which Binance promised listing should they win, conflict began to brew.
The bone of contention was the expectation of a listing fee by Binance. In their case, they were expected to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars to get listed, which they did not have. As a result of this, DGB was not listed on Binance, to the disappointment of the community. In 2019, they were once again approached by Binance for a possible listing deal, Tate had already informed the Digibyte community about the upcoming meeting and declared that he would decline if any outrageous demands were made. According to him, this was the case.
“I told the community, ‘Look if they make any crazy demands, I’m not going to go for it.’ I was told they wouldn’t make any crazy demands. Sixty seconds into the call, they’re asking for $300,000 and 3% of all DigiBytes,” he said, further stating that he believed that the listing would have been a means to promote the new Binance US platform.
Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, did not deny the allegations when questioned but simply said that he would not waste his time. In an article by Zhao published in 2017, the apparently took at dig at Tate by claiming that “It is a bad idea to ‘try-to-pressure’ Binance into listing your coin by spreading FUD or negative comments about Binance.” and that all listing fees went to charity.
DGB had further problems when in 2019, Tate mentioned on Twitter that he had concerns about how user data would be handled on Poloniex. At the time. The exchange had just been sold to Tron. The exchange’s official account come out to clarify that they did not own or collect user data. In the very same tweet, they announced that they would be delisting DGB from their platform.
The Implications of the Binance Listing
Now that DGB has been listed on Binance, it could usher in a new era of growth and exposure for the coin. Should they also be listed on Coinbase, smaller exchanges might follow suit. The result is that not only will DGB become more accessible for trading and acquiring but that its overall use could skyrocket. Its founder Jared Tate has since announced that he is exiting the project but these new developments show that DGB still has a future within the cryptocurrency industry.
