Binance CEO Richard Teng: Binance Celebrates its Seventh Anniversary, Continues to Lead Financial Innovation in the Crypto Industry

Binance CEO Richard Teng: Our team and the global cryptocurrency community are celebrating Binance's seventh anniversary, which also marks the first anniversary since I took over as CEO of Binance. By general standards, a company that has been established for seven years is mostly still in its early growth stages, an ambitious startup; however, in the cryptocurrency industry, a company that has been around for seven years and has maintained a leadership position almost throughout this period, Binance has become a highly experienced industry veteran. In this industry where changes occur most rapidly, it has survived and thrived through various developmental stages.

As Binance approaches its seventh year, it embodies the characteristics of both: maintaining the curiosity, agility, and growth mindset of a startup, while also possessing the wisdom and resilience of a seasoned veteran who has endured various crises and learned important lessons through challenging experiences. With over 210 million global users and still growing, they have given us immense trust, willing to embark on their cryptocurrency journey with us, becoming a driving force in achieving financial freedom and inclusivity worldwide. This is where we stand today.

Binance Ecosystem Development Status

Whether it's our first anniversary, second anniversary, upcoming seventh anniversary, or any future anniversaries to come, Binance has always kept its original intention in mind: "User First" is the most important consideration in all our decision-making; with a hardcore work culture and ownership mindset, we continuously innovate with the aim of improving people's lives.

The past year has been nothing short of eventful for Binance: challenging obstacles and exciting moments of success intertwined. Turning the page from past issues and leadership changes, we see signs of user confidence being restored in the strong influx of funds and skyrocketing new registrations. We remain strong and have not stopped advancing the industry.

A key milestone this year was reaching a threshold of 200 million global registered users in early June. Among them are many users already familiar with digital assets, as well as many newcomers to the industry, who believe that Binance will open the door for them to enter the Web3 world for the first time. Each new user joining us means we are one step closer to digital assets entering the mainstream. We warmly welcome these new users and promise to do everything we can to make them feel comfortable and secure as they explore the future of finance with us.

More users joining means Binance is custodian to more funds. Earlier this year, the amount of user funds custodied on our platform exceeded $100 billion USD for the first time. Our user funds are always safeguarded under the principles of security and transparency on a 1:1 basis.

Building Infrastructure to Drive Mainstream Adoption of Cryptocurrencies

To better support both new and existing users in exploring the world of cryptocurrencies, we offer a range of infrastructure, products, and services to meet any user's needs related to Web3 and digital assets. Currently, Binance supports 541 carefully selected digital assets and 2,632 cryptocurrency trading pairs. Our robust system is ready to handle a large volume of user activities. The historical peak query per second (QPS) on the Binance platform— a measure of the number of requests sent by users to our system and responded to per second—reached as high as 2.58 million. This figure demonstrates that Binance can smoothly handle very large loads when users need it most.

To promote the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and financial inclusion, we continue to expand our product coverage to ensure wider accessibility in the cryptocurrency space and provide essential financial services.

Our "Binance Earn" product line allows users to grow their crypto assets with 392 different cryptocurrencies and has attracted over 8 million users to experience Binance Earn services. Payment is another pillar for cryptocurrencies to enter the mainstream, with over 24 million people globally using Binance Pay for secure and efficient domestic or cross-border transfers.

Another key force driving digital assets into the mainstream in the current market cycle is the increasing participation of institutions. Binance's unparalleled liquidity and market depth, coupled with products and solutions tailored to the strict requirements of professional investors, have attracted a large number of institutions to join the Binance ecosystem: from January to June 2024, we witnessed a 36% increase in institutional user registrations.

Cryptocurrency education is also a crucial foundation for the widespread adoption of digital assets. The total number of students in the Binance Academy has reached 43.6 million. Through learning, users can gain a better understanding of the blockchain world and digital assets, invest in cryptocurrencies in a more thoughtful and responsible manner.

Security and Compliance

Over the past seven years, we have made significant investments in regulatory compliance and will continue to do so with even greater determination. We understand that robust compliance practices will play a critical role as the cryptocurrency industry enters a new stage of maturity. We continue to recruit top talents, constantly improve our systems and technology, and work closely with numerous national governments and regulatory authorities to obtain operational licenses and registrations. Currently, we are licensed and registered in 18 jurisdictions, ranking first among all centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

Another area Binance focuses on is strengthening security collaboration in the digital financial sector. Our law enforcement training program has contributed to building the capabilities of global law enforcement agencies to combat illicit activities related to digital assets by organizing numerous online and offline courses. Between June 2023 and May 2024, the Binance team handled 62,800 law enforcement requests, with a total of 173,800 requests processed. Each request plays a critical role in investigating and prosecuting criminal cases, locating criminals, and recovering funds for victims.

To protect Binance users from potential security risks and losses from extreme circumstances, we have consistently maintained the SAFU fund size at over $1 billion and will continue to do so. Earlier this year, we converted all SAFU funds to the more trusted and transparent stablecoin USDC to further enhance the reliability of the fund size and ensure its value remains stable at $1 billion.

Future Outlook

As we approach our eighth year of serving cryptocurrency users, we will steadfastly lead the digital asset industry into the next stage of development. With market and industry trends becoming more apparent, some of the forces shaping them are well known.

The institutionalization of cryptocurrencies, coupled with clearer regulations, will attract more large-scale investors and capital into this field. At the same time, the importance of retail users will remain unchanged, as the community of early adopters continues to expand, attracting more new users from new regions and populations. They will need more intuitive user experiences, straightforward knowledge of cryptocurrencies, user support, and ongoing innovation—Binance is born for this purpose.

With the trust and support of the global community, we believe that the hard work of the past seven years has laid a solid foundation for greater success, and the path to financial freedom and inclusion will only grow wider. And this is just the beginning.