Rumors abound in the cryptocurrency industry that Binance is about to complete a buyout of the popular digital asset price reference website CoinMarketCap. Even before full confirmation of the news, some observers are suggesting that the takeover represents a conflict of interest.

Although most users of the site will presumably not care who owns it, some certainly do. It stands to reason that those against the larger exchange having control over the largest price reference service could turn to alternate services, such as CoinGecko — if they haven’t already done so that is.

Will CMC’s Loss Be CoinGecko’s Gain?

Binance is reportedly in the process of buying out CoinMarketCap. The buyout is believed to be worth a total of $400 million in cash and stock. This would make it one of the largest deals in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.

Neither CoinMarketCap nor Binance have formally confirmed the buyout at the time of writing. However, some industry observers are already saying that such an acquisition would represent a conflict of interest.

In the article linked to above, the author and tweeter claims that the two companies are going to finalize the acquisition this week. It goes on to question the motives behind the takeover:

“Frankly, I do not see why BINANCE should be so interested on this but, besides the possible incomes for advertising, to get the power of manipulating the information received by the crypto users.”

Others agree that the takeover would represent a clear conflict of interest. Some expressed concern over the amount of power the move would give Binance. The acquisition, and at least eight others mentioned in a January Binance newsletter, suggests that the company is trying to buy up interests in as many corners of the industry as possible.

Meanwhile, Larry Cermak, stated the following.

Binance Deal Unlikely to Dislodge CMC at the Top

With an Alexa rank of 570, CoinMarketCap receives far more traffic than any other cryptocurrency price reference site. Its nearest competition, CoinGecko, lags way behind at 7,304.

Although people have already come out against the supposed conflict of interest, the impact on the above Alexa rankings will likely be minimal.

As Larry Cermak identifies above, CoinMarketCap does exceptionally well at attracting non-industry folks to it. If someone needs to check the Bitcoin price quickly, they’ll likely end up at CMC.

Those discerning enough to understand the ownership issues discussed above are already likely to be users of CoinGecko too. Some users may well boycott CMC, but it seems unlikely that it will be in the volume needed to displace the site as the No. 1 in terms of cryptocurrency price referencing services.