Binance's 9th 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 has reached its own "fork in the road moment" — will it continue to hunker down and defend its crypto base, or will it go with the flow and join the wave of global financial innovation? As it stands now, this is no longer an elective but a mandatory question.

The tides of the era are surging forward; industry in-fighting only leads to a dead end. Only by breaking outward and reaching global financial markets can the industry usher in a second spring.

In this regard, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has shown the most decisive resolve. Its earlier move to list over 7,000 US stocks in one go is nothing short of a monumental feat for the industry. And as a capital giant with a stablecoin reserve of $53 billion and a 57% market share, Binance is also re-exploring the industry's direction in its own way, seeking its new ecological niche within the global financial system — "the super financial platform of the next monetary era."

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

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

Today, after 9 years of development, Binance boasts over 320 million global users across 180 countries and regions, with customer assets exceeding $128 billion. It is an undisputed leading monetary and financial platform in the crypto industry and globally. But it all began 9 years ago with an unremarkable grassroots exchange, born from the wild age of a nascent industry, and sparked by a series of bold innovations and courageous attempts that dared to lead the sector. Looking back, Binance's development can be briefly divided into the following four major stages:

Binance 1.0 Era: The Pioneer of the Crypto Wilderness (2017-2018)

On July 14, 2017, with the crypto industry still in its grassroots growth phase, Binance officially set sail.

It is said that Binance's English name is derived from "Binary Finance," aiming to provide users with an efficient and low-cost crypto trading platform based on a native utility token.

At that time, the crypto industry was in the mid-to-late stages of the ICO craze. The emergence of BNB became one of the era's phenomenal ICO public offerings. Crypto market exchanges were on the regulatory fringes. There were no unified market standards or trading platforms with optimal user experience within the industry; everything was in its infancy.

But soon, rampant "air coins," frequent P2P implosions, and the chaos of ICOs drew the attention of regulators. On September 4 of that year, a decree from Chinese regulators launched a "wave of shutdowns" in the crypto industry, causing a huge crisis for many exchanges on the mainland.

Amidst this industry catastrophe, the nascent Binance seized the opportunity. It was among the first to move its servers to Japan, embrace global operations, and subsequently relocate its headquarters to Malta. In just 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 count surpassed 6 million. Investment arms like 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: The Builder of an Open Crypto Ecosystem (2019-2021)

After the major bear market of 2018, Binance's development entered a phase of rapid explosion.

In 2019, Binance successively opened channels for credit card deposits, penetrated the European and American markets, launched the BUSD stablecoin, and built the BSC ecosystem, further broadening the scope of its participation in global finance.

That year, despite a platform hack involving 7,000 BTC, the incident ended with Binance fully compensating users' losses, relying on strong platform credibility and a swift response. The crisis actually became an opportunity to verify Binance's reliability.

The subsequent launches of perpetual contracts and the DEX became key drivers for Binance's meteoric rise. Countless users, capital, and liquidity flocked in, providing ample fuel for Binance's climbing trading volumes. Then, Binance continued without pause, rolling out products and features like IEO, Launchpad, Launchpool, DeFi staking, and Binance Liquid Swap, opening doors to wealth for BNB holders. Projects invested in by Binance Labs (now Yzi Labs) also began to shine in the industry, and "Binance Labs portfolio projects" gradually became a golden signboard. The BSC ecosystem attracted more and more users due to the wealth-creation frenzy. Global crypto KOLs and "Binance Angels" became super nodes of the Binance ecosystem, helping Binance achieve a milestone in January 2021: "Monthly spot trading volume exceeding $1 trillion."

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

In 4 years, Binance evolved from a single-role crypto exchange into an indispensable on-chain infrastructure builder for the crypto market.

Binance 3.0 Era: The Embracer of the Crypto Regulatory Era (2022-2024)

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

The implosions of Terra/Luna/UST, Three Arrows Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, and FTX turned the crypto industry into a pariah in the eyes of traditional financial markets. External ridicule and controversy had never been so intense.

Nevertheless, the unique resilience of the crypto market kept Binance moving forward. In October 2022, Binance's share of the global crypto spot trading market surged to 62%, still the undisputed industry leader. From then on, the demands and scope of trust in the crypto market and its users were no longer confined within the industry but gradually extended to the global financial ecosystem.

This time, Binance was again at the forefront.

In 2022, Binance became one of the first crypto exchanges to publish Proof of Reserves. In 2023, CZ, as Binance's founder, voluntarily submitted to a US compliance investigation, which eventually concluded with "CZ sentenced to 4 months in prison, and Binance reaching a $4.3 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice." This was also the largest corporate settlement in US history involving criminal charges against executives.

Thus, Binance, actively 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 big year for mainstream crypto adoption. Bitcoin spot ETFs and Ethereum spot ETFs were approved. Bitcoin finally broke through its previous high of $69,000. The crypto industry entered a period of competition over existing users, and traditional financial markets and the crypto market began to accelerate their integration.

By the end of 2024, Binance registered users reached 250 million; cumulative trading volume exceeded $100 trillion; annual revenue hit $16.8 billion, making it one of the most profitable financial platforms globally. At the same time, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund MGX strategically invested $2 billion in Binance, setting one of the largest single investment records in crypto history.

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

Binance 4.0 Era: The Super Portal and Super App for Global Financial Assets (2025-2026)

Over the past two years, Binance has gradually raised the curtain on becoming the super portal and super app for global financial assets.

Alongside the accelerated integration of traditional financial markets and crypto markets, RWA assets represented by US stocks, US-listed companies, and payment methods represented by stablecoins have become investment choices and value benchmarks for more and more people. However, the challenge facing the world's 8 billion people is not just asset certification thresholds and the limitations of the fiat currency circulation system, but also the lack of a unified one-stop application for finance, daily life, investment, payments, and more.

This is precisely the direction Binance is currently breaking through. In June this year, Binance officially opened trading for over 7,000 US stocks and ETFs, and subsequently directly supported 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, multiple assets." An Argentine worker in South America, suffering from inflation, can also spend $10 to buy US stocks. A digital nomad in Bali, Southeast Asia, can easily pay for a coffee or a restaurant bill with cryptocurrency. A Muslim in the Middle East can freely trade oil price fluctuations and gold volatility. Qualified investors worldwide can participate in trading and using diverse assets. Latest data shows that within just one month, the assets under management for stocks on Binance's platform have exceeded $1 billion.

Second, Binance achieved "time zone equality with global 24/7 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 achieving "365 days of round-the-clock online availability." The launch of the bStocks product completed the last major category of assets on the Binance platform and also opened the door for flexible global compliant investment portfolios.

Finally, Binance achieved "risk control equality through reserve mechanisms and AI security compliance." For many, on-chain finance faces tests and risks such as hacker attacks, social engineering attacks, and asset preservation. Leveraging Binance's mature security and risk control mechanisms, user assets are tightly protected, and the AI security compliance system maximizes asset preservation capabilities. According to official data, from 2025 to date, Binance's AI security risk control system has cumulatively prevented over $10.5 billion in risk fraud.

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, time zone equality, and risk control equality. Balancing CeFi and DeFi development, Binance today is an undeniable "one-stop financial application platform," truly becoming the global hub for financial liquidity.

Referencing official information, as today's ALL IN ONE "Super APP," the Binance platform now covers 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.

As a result, over 320 million global users can complete merchant payments, friend transfers, investment trading, fractional share purchases, and wealth management returns within a single account. And Binance's "super app journey" has expanded from crypto to the US stock sector, rapidly advancing towards its target of 3 billion global users.

Conclusion: Answering the Questions of the Era, Binance Steps Up

Nine years ago, faced with challenges in the crypto industry such as "user trading, user experience, and asset variety," Binance gave its answers through step-by-step innovations and strategic moves, leaping to become the industry leader. Nine years later today, the problems facing Binance are similar, but the user groups affected have expanded globally — that is, how to let everyone enjoy the dividends of the era of financial equality and participate in the free flow of global assets?

Binance's answer is both changed and unchanged. What changes are the industry environment, asset types, and financial ecosystem. What remains unchanged is the unwavering focus on users, the determination to break through past financial bottlenecks, and the commitment to building a new financial system that is open and empowering for everyone globally.

Based on its accumulated global market presence, crypto-native technology, market credibility, and AI-native technical infrastructure, coupled with the self-organizing ecosystem built with the community over 9 years, Binance has moved from the periphery of the era's stage to the center, transforming from a grassroots startup platform into a global super financial platform.

Going forward, Binance's goal remains those eight words: Financial Equality, Empowering Users.