In addition to thanking clients for their 6 years of support, CZ also outlined the highs and lows that Binance has seen since its launch in 2017.
As Binance turns six, CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) reflects on the company’s journey since its inception and deeply appreciates the users who have kept the company profitable. In an honest note shared with Coinspeaker, CZ details an exchange’s journey filled with both troubles and successes.
CZ opened with “humble beginnings” for Binance, explaining that the exchange had raised $15 million in digital assets and launched two weeks later. At that time, Binance was launched with only 5 coins and 2 languages. Zhao added that the exchange borrowed a customer support team from a different organization and did not have a marketing team.
Binance is now the largest exchange in the world by trading volume and has maintained this position since 2017. Six years after its launch, Binance now has several thousand employees and supports more than 600 digital assets in more than 40 languages.
CZ reflects on Binance challenges as the exchange celebrates its sixth year
Zhao wrote extensively about the challenges the exchange faced in the memo. He said the first major challenge was China’s decision ban Cryptocurrency exchanges and ICOs in September 2017. Due to the ban, ICO projects returned money to investors, and tokens crashed. Zhao eventually had to pay Binance $6 million in funds, or 40% of the exchange’s treasury. Fortunately, the action paid off and attracted a swarm of users to Binance. By December of that year, Binance had become the largest exchange in the world in terms of trading volume.
CZ also mentioned navigating an “evolving regulatory landscape”. While regulatory issues have always been an issue in the cryptocurrency industry, especially since the “tier 1 regulator in Asia” told Czechoslovakia in 2019 that they do not regulate cryptocurrencies, the CEO is now confident that regulators are now paying more attention.
“Globally, we have shown that compliance and innovation can exist side by side. We are proud of our licenses and registrations in 17 countries, which is evidence of our pro-regulatory stance and extensive efforts in compliance and regulation,” he wrote.
Noting support for regulation, Zhao assured the Binance community that the exchange was eager to cooperate with policymakers.
As part of his remark, CZ explained Binance’s level of exposure during last year’s winter to cryptocurrencies. He emphasized that while last year’s market was more volatile than the winter of 2018, Binance had “minimal exposure.” However, the CEO confirmed that Binance invested $3 million in Terra in 2018 and never sold or transferred LUNA tokens. The investment jumped to $1.6 billion in 2021 and then collapsed to $0 last year.
Binance is looking forward
With Binance turning six, Changpeng Zhao is excited about the future of cryptocurrency. Zhao highlights the increasing institutional crypto adoption, pointing to companies like Fidelity, Citadel, and BlackRock. He also expects Decentralized Finance (DeFi) to accelerate as DeFi products make crypto ownership easy, and developers create more products. Zhao also predicts that DeFi will overtake CeFi in about 6 years.
Finally, the CEO ended his remark by thanking Binance customers for their support and candid feedback.
“I am eternally grateful to be on this journey with you. You are the heart and soul of Binance, for many years to come.”
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Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify cryptocurrency stories down to the bare essentials so that anyone anywhere can understand without much background knowledge. When he’s not deep into cryptocurrency stories, Tolo enjoys music, loves to sing, and is a movie lover.
