Coinbase, the major crypto exchange with the largest number of U.S. users, appears to play an important role in the increase of the trading volume of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by adjusted trading volume, according to Dovey Wan, founding partner of crypto-asset investment Primitive Ventures.

Dovey said on twitter on February 11 that the biggest utility of Coinbase is to serve as the fiat on ramp vending machine for Binance as time goes by, even though she though it was an “unpopular opinion”.

“Once the fiat is transferred into the crypto world, it will land on Binance immediately with majority of trading volume happening there.” Dovey said.

Her assertion soon sparked heated debates among crypto enthusiasts, and was echoed by the popular cryptocurrency analyst the Crypto Dog who said this is already the case.

But Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, didn’t agree. He argued that both Coinbase and Binance offer more than an exchange, and are driving the industry growth together, even though he did not clarity whether the two major exchanges have formed any kind of cooperation.

Dovey responded that “both are great companies with its unique moats. Coinbase surely has advantage in licensed fiat money business, especially in US.”

Given that Binance doesn’t make inroads into the U.S. market owing to due to compliance and regulatory issues, it seems reasonable to speculate that Coinbase may help Binance tap into the U.S. crypto market behind the scene as Coinbase is registered as a money services business with FinCEN, and is is licensed in most U.S. areas.

In fact, this is not the first time CZ has faced the question about the relationship between these two exchanges. Back in December,2018, CZ offered a diplomatic answer to the poll launched by the Crypto Dog about the battle for crypto between Binance and Coinbase in the coming years, saying that Binance and Coinbase will not compete but coexist.

Although a recent report shows San Francisco-based Coinbase leads the ranking in total daily active users, its development is hampered by lesser number of listed altcoins and higher fees. Meanwhile, Binance has become the king of crypto-to-crypto trading and leads the rest, despite being a relatively newer exchange. But it’s too early to pick the winner in the crypto exchange race.