Binance Ninth Anniversary: From a Grassroots Exchange to a Super Financial Platform

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser 2010 )

In 2026, the crypto industry enters its 17th year, and the exchange sector faces its own "fork in the road" moment. Will it continue to stick to its crypto core base, or will it embrace the trend and join the global wave of financial innovation? Now, it seems this is no longer an elective but a mandatory question.

The tide of the times is surging forward. Competition within the industry can only lead to a dead end. To break out, reaching the global financial market is the only way to bring a second spring.

In this regard, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has shown the most determination. Its earlier move to list over 7,000 US stocks is an industry feat. As a financial heavyweight with $53 billion in stablecoin reserves and a 57% market share, Binance is also exploring the industry's direction in its own way, seeking a new ecological niche within the global financial system: the "super financial platform for the next monetary era."

From a grassroots crypto exchange that started in 2017 to a global hub for asset liquidity, perhaps Binance has always been providing its own answer to the industry's core challenge: In an era of technological explosion, how far are we from a world of financial equality?

Binance's 9-Year Journey: From Grassroots to Mainstay, From Periphery to Center, From Singularity to Diversity

Today, after 9 years of development, Binance serves over 320 million users across 180 countries and regions, with customer assets exceeding $128 billion. It is an undisputed leading financial platform in the crypto industry and globally. However, all of this began 9 years ago with an unremarkable grassroots exchange, born from the wild beginnings of a new industry, and originating from a series of bold innovations and courageous attempts that dared to lead the sector. Looking back, Binance's development can be broadly divided into the following four stages:

Binance 1.0 Era: Pioneer in the Crypto Frontier (2017-2018)

On July 14, 2017, as the crypto industry was still in its nascent growth phase, Binance officially launched.

It is said that Binance's English name is derived from "Binary Finance," referring to binary finance (Odaily Note: Similar to binary options, it is a simplified financial instrument where investors only need to predict the price direction of an underlying asset, without considering the magnitude of change). It aimed to provide users with an efficient and low-cost crypto trading platform based on its native utility token.

At that time, the ICO craze was in its mid-to-late stages, and the emergence of BNB became one of the year's iconic public sale events. Crypto market exchanges operated in a regulatory gray area, with no unified market standards or user-friendly trading platforms. Everything was in its infancy.

But soon, rampant "air coins," repeated P2P implosions, and ICO chaos caught the attention of regulators. On September 4 of that year, a directive from Chinese regulators triggered a "cleanup wave" in the crypto industry, causing significant business crises for many mainland Chinese crypto exchanges.

Amidst this industry turmoil, the nascent Binance seized the opportunity. It was the first to move its servers to Japan, the first to embrace global operations, and subsequently relocated its headquarters to Malta. Within a few short months, Binance leaped to become the top crypto exchange by trading volume.

The 2018 crypto bear market became a period of patient accumulation for Binance.

That year, Binance's user base surpassed 6 million. Investment arm Binance Labs (now Yzi Labs), along with Binance Academy, Binance Research, and the Binance Charity Foundation, were established. The ecosystem built around the Binance exchange gradually matured with Trust Wallet and BNB.

Binance 2.0 Era: Builder of an Open Crypto Ecosystem (2019-2021)

After the major bear market of 2018, Binance entered a phase of rapid acceleration.

In 2019, Binance successively opened channels for credit card deposits, entered the European and American markets, introduced the BUSD stablecoin, and launched the BSC ecosystem, broadening its scope for participating in global finance.

During this year, despite an incident involving the theft of 7,000 BTC, the platform's strong reputation and swift response led to a full reimbursement of user losses. The crisis instead became an opportunity to validate Binance's reliability.

The subsequent launch of perpetual contracts and a DEX became the key catalysts for Binance's rapid growth. Countless users, funds, and liquidity flocked to the platform, providing ample fuel for its soaring trading volumes. Binance continued its momentum, sequentially launching products and features like IEO, Launchpad, Launchpool, DeFi Staking, and Binance Liquid Swap, opening doors of wealth for BNB holders. Investments from Binance Labs (now Yzi Labs) began to shine, with the "Binance Labs portfolio" label becoming a hallmark of quality in the industry. The BSC ecosystem also attracted more users through its wealth-generation effects. Global crypto KOLs and "Binance Angels" became super nodes of the Binance ecosystem, helping Binance achieve a milestone in January 2021: surpassing $1 trillion in monthly spot trading volume.

In the same year, Binance founder CZ became one of the world's top ten richest people, with a net worth of $94.1 billion.

In four years, Binance evolved from a single-purpose crypto exchange into an indispensable on-chain infrastructure of the crypto market.

Binance 3.0 Era: Embracing the Era of Crypto Compliance and Regulation (2022-2024)

Entering 2022, after the DeFi Summer, GameFi Summer, and NFT Summer, the crypto industry faced another winter.

The collapses of Terra/Luna/UST, Three Arrows Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, and FTX occurred one after another. The crypto industry was branded a pariah by traditional financial markets, facing unprecedented mockery and controversy from the outside world.

Nevertheless, the inherent resilience of the crypto market continued to propel Binance forward. In October 2022, Binance's share of the global crypto spot market surged to 62%, remaining the undisputed industry leader. From that point on, the demand for trust from the crypto market and its users was no longer confined to the industry itself but gradually extended to the global financial ecosystem.

Once again, Binance led the way.

In 2022, Binance became one of the first crypto exchanges to publish a proof-of-reserves report. In 2023, CZ, as Binance's founder, proactively submitted to a US compliance investigation. The matter concluded with CZ sentenced to 4 months in prison and Binance reaching a $4.3 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice, marking the largest corporate settlement in US history involving criminal charges against executives.

From then on, Binance, proactively embracing crypto regulation, gradually entered the "post-CZ era." Co-founder He Yi and new CEO Richard Teng jointly guided Binance into a new era of compliance.

2024 was a landmark year for crypto mainstreaming. The approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs broke previous barriers, with Bitcoin finally surpassing its previous all-time high of $69,000. The industry entered a period of competition for existing market share, with traditional financial markets and the crypto market accelerating their convergence.

By the end of 2024, Binance's registered user base reached 250 million. Its cumulative trading volume exceeded $100 trillion, and its annual revenue was $16.8 billion, making it one of the most profitable financial platforms globally. Additionally, MGX, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, made a strategic investment of $2 billion in Binance, setting one of the largest single-investment records in crypto history.

For Binance, having hit the industry's ceiling, compliance is the final piece of the puzzle for becoming a global super financial platform.

Binance 4.0 Era: Global Financial Asset Super-Entry and Super-App (2025-2026)

In the past two years, Binance has begun to unveil its vision of becoming a global super-entry point and super-app for financial assets.

With the accelerated integration of traditional financial markets and the crypto market, RWA assets represented by US stocks, US-listed companies, and payment methods represented by stablecoins have become investment choices and value benchmarks for more people. However, the world's 8 billion people face not only the barriers of asset certification thresholds and fiat currency circulation systems but also the challenge of lacking a unified, all-in-one application for finance, daily life, investment, and payments.

This is precisely the direction Binance is currently focusing on breaking through. In June of this year, Binance officially opened trading for over 7,000 US stocks and ETFs, subsequently directly supporting on-chain trading of tokenized assets (bStocks), thus opening a new chapter in the global financial ecosystem.

First, Binance achieved "asset equality with one account for multiple assets." A worker in Argentina, suffering from inflation in South America, can buy US stocks with just $10. A digital nomad in Bali, Southeast Asia, can easily pay for coffee or a restaurant bill using cryptocurrency. A Muslim in the Middle East can freely trade the ups and downs of crude oil or gold fluctuations. Globally, eligible investors can participate in the trading and application of diverse assets. Latest data shows that within just one month, the assets under management for Binance's stock products exceeded $1 billion.

Second, Binance achieved "timezone equality with 24/7 global trading." No matter which hemisphere, latitude, or time zone you are in, you can participate in the most popular asset trading, investment, and volatility, truly enabling "365-day round-the-clock online access." The launch of the bStocks product completed the last major category of asset types on the Binance platform and opened the door for flexible global compliant investment portfolios.

Finally, Binance achieved "risk control equality with reserve mechanisms and AI-powered security compliance." For many, on-chain finance faces tests and risks from hacker attacks, social engineering attacks, and asset preservation. Utilizing Binance's mature security risk control system, user assets are rigorously protected. The AI security compliance system further enhances asset preservation capabilities. According to official data, since 2025, Binance's AI-powered security system has cumulatively prevented over $10.5 billion in fraudulent risks.

Centered on AI intelligent applications and blockchain technology infrastructure, Binance has truly achieved a five-in-one integration of financial equality, quantitative equality, asset equality, timezone equality, and risk control equality. By balancing CeFi and DeFi development, Binance is now an undisputed "one-stop financial application platform," genuinely becoming the global hub for financial liquidity distribution.

According to official information, as the current ALL-IN-ONE "super app," the Binance platform now encompasses the following four functional layers:

• Infrastructure Layer: Pre-IPO Perps, Stocks, Tokenized Stocks (bStocks), Spot, Futures, Margin, Options, Alpha, Wallet, Fiat Gateway, Loans, VIP.
• Community & Social Layer: Chat, Binance Square, C2C, etc.
• Growth & Yield Layer: Earn, Launchpool, Megadrop, HODLer Airdrops, Simple Earn, Mining Pool, etc.
• Intelligent Application Layer: Binance AI Pro, Binance Pay, Card, and other features.

Thus, over 320 million global users can complete merchant payments, friend transfers, investment trading, fractional share purchases, and earning yields all within a single account. And Binance's "super-app journey" has expanded from crypto to the US stock market, rapidly advancing toward its goal of 3 billion global users.

Conclusion: Answering the Questions of Our Time, Binance Steps Up

Nine years ago, facing challenges like user trading, user experience, and asset variety within the crypto industry, Binance provided its own answers through continuous innovation and strategic execution, rising to become the industry leader. Nine years later today, the problems Binance faces are similar, but the affected user groups have expanded globally. The question is: How can everyone enjoy the dividends of the era of financial equality and participate in the free flow of global assets?

Binance's answer contains both change and constancy. What has changed is the industry environment, asset types, and financial ecosystems. What remains unchanged is its steadfast user-centric approach, its commitment to breaking through past financial bottlenecks, and its mission to build a new financial system that is open and empowers everyone globally.

Leveraging its accumulated global market presence, crypto-native technology, market credibility, and AI-native technology infrastructure, combined with the self-organizing ecosystem built over nine years with its community and ecosystem partners, Binance has moved from the periphery of the era's stage to its center, transforming from a grassroots startup into a global super financial platform.

The next step for Binance remains encapsulated in eight words: Financial Equality, Empowering Users.