On 14 July 2017, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance — the largest by trading volume to date — launched. ForkLog reviewed a corporate letter from Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), in which he thanked staff, recalled key milestones in the company’s history, and outlined plans for the future.
Zhao noted that at launch Binance supported only five tokens and two languages; today it lists more than 600 coins.
He also recalled the period in September 2017 when Chinese authorities banned cryptocurrency exchanges. According to him, at that moment the leadership made a “simple decision” to reimburse users $6 million from the company’s own funds. At that time, the amount represented 40% of the firm’s total budget.
“As it turned out, the world prefers people who do the right thing. Our actions drew overwhelmingly positive responses from the global crypto community. Many users from around the world sought us out. Within a month we had 120,000 users and began turning a profit,” wrote the Binance chief.
CZ spoke of the harsh crypto winter of 2018 and noted that the period taught the company “prudent financial management”.
The second market downturn in 2022 proved more volatile, but Binance was “minimally affected by most catastrophic events,” Zhao added.
The exchange’s CEO recalled investments in the Terra ecosystem in 2018. The company has not sold a single LUNA token to this day. According to CZ, initial investments of $3 million turned into $1.6 billion at the peak, and then fell almost to zero.
He mentioned that the collapse of the hedge fund Three Arrow Capital did not affect Binance’s operations. In addition, the crypto exchange invested in the fallen FTX, but exited the deal at an early stage.
“In 2023 we saw the market begin to recover. But we also observed closer regulatory scrutiny of the industry. … Binance must take the initiative and work with authorities worldwide to push the sector forward,” Zhao added.
Speaking about the future of the crypto market, CZ noted the arrival of institutional players in the form of BlackRock, Valkyrie and Fidelity Investments. He believes this is a “test of the technology and the industry.” The Binance chief also places a strong emphasis on DeFi as a tool for direct interaction with blockchains.
Zhao spoke about the emergence of a clearer regulatory environment, but noted that adoption of digital assets proceeds at different speeds around the world.
Summing up, CZ provided the platform’s statistics:
- 140 million users worldwide;
- 11.9 million customers of the Binance Earn staking service;
- 11.5 million people in 70 countries used the Binance Pay payment service;
- 2.4 million Binance Card holders;
- 3.9 million sales on the Binance NFT marketplace;
- Binance Labs invested in more than 200 projects;
- $28 million allocated by the company to charity.
In July Binance appointed Eleonor Hughes to the position of general counsel. She has 15 years of experience at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, focusing on litigation and contentious matters.